In Memories Forgotten
by DaLizzie
Summary: AU-How long can the human consciousness retain memories? What does it take to regain what has been forgotten? Yaoi(that's what the PG-13 is for; don't like it don't read it)Y-YY Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh ain't mine
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Psst… Guess what. . . I'M BACK! Yes, after a writing hiatus that's longer than Gone with the Wind, I have returned. It's not really that I stopped writing, it's just that school and work and my bad viola playing snuck up on me sometime in mid-August with a lethal iron spork. BUT! I have remedied that. Now that I no longer have a math class to deal with (enter choir HALLELUJAH!) I can get my mind back to more important (coughhackblowingoffhomeworkcough) things such as torturing my favorite YGO characters. squee So now, ladies and gentlemen… and everyone else… may I present the reason that I was up until midnight last night.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 1

It was the perfect night to savor a bad mood. The clouds were surrounding the moon, creating a milky haze, and fog from the nearby swamp curled its fingers around tree trunks and undergrowth. Small night-creatures flitted across the ground and rustled through the trees. The stars were all hidden, and the murky blackness oozed out into the lightless, misty forest. Yes, it was an absolutely, positively perfect night for brooding, and Yami was not going to waste it.

With the daylight safely tucked away under the cloudy horizon, Yami could walk freely without having to fear sun or human. Even if there were any humans out and about at that particular hour, they would surely take Yami for one of the night-walking, blood-sucking phantoms that were frequently featured in children's tales and fireside stories, and be frightened back to the safety of the village.

So, Yami strolled through the forest without much direction, kicking up dead, fallen leaves and tendrils of mist as he went. On the crest of a hill, he stopped for a moment, looking at the rooftops and lit windows of the village less than a mile away. He had often wondered to himself what being a human would be like. He had read about them extensively, but had come to the conclusion that he would never really know unless he experienced it. And so, he shook off the wondering feeling and kept walking, berating himself for letting his withered heart wish for the impossible. Wishing had become an odd pastime of his lately, and it was getting annoying. He had no business wishing for such things. And why should he start now? He had been just fine with the way things were for several hundred years, so everything should still be just fine. When one is ageless, time doesn't matter.

Right?

Yami was in an even worse mood, kicking debris out of his way with a vengeance as he went, when a strange sound reached his ears. He immediately brushed it off as a noise of one of the small animals inhabiting the forest, but when the noise reached his ears a second time, he realized that it was something he hadn't heard before.

Being quite sure that he knew the calls of the night creatures well enough to recognize them, Yami followed the sound, noting as he went that it was taking him towards the village. The trees and foliage became thinner, and the noise grew steadily louder. Yami's curiosity grew, and he was barely able to stop himself from stumbling into a clearing that suddenly appeared in front of him. After regaining his balance, Yami tilted his head to one side and listened intently. The noise was definitely coming from that clearing.

He was close enough now that he could make it out clearly; it was a soft, fearful whimper, and because Yami's curiosity had been piqued and he had nothing better to do anyways, he strode out into the clearing to see what was making the noise. He suddenly stopped short.

The first thing that registered in his mind was that the creature was a human, most likely a female from the look of the clothing. Ropes around her shins and her chest and arms were pinning her to a slender but strong oak tree, and a rag stuffed in her mouth prevented her from making any sound but a soft whimper. Her wide, violet eyes were her most visible feature in the darkness, seeming to have a light of their own.

Yami blinked. He had known that humans were odd creatures, but tying girls to trees and leaving them there through the night was the strangest practice he had yet heard of. He ran the stories about vampires and other such nonsense through his mind, but didn't come up with any information that could explain this behavior.

The violet orbs became even larger as the girl spotted Yami's form in the dim light of the moon, and in a sudden panic she struggled desperately against her bonds. Even though it was obvious that the girl was afraid of him, and even though Yami usually wanted no involvement with humans, he found himself fascinated with the delicate, frightened creature. He stepped forward, and soon was standing directly in front of the trapped girl.

She had stopped struggling, now frozen with fear, her entire body trembling. Yami felt his hand itch with a strange desire to touch the pale human, but the logical part of his mind repressed the urge. The girl squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself, which only managed to amuse Yami. Humans had such fear of him, but the only thing that he wanted was to be left alone. He had no intention of doing anything to this girl.

Rustling among the brush caught his attention for just a moment. He frowned, eyeing the bushes until they stopped moving and whatever creature had disturbed them ran off into the night trees. A thought suddenly entered Yami's mind. There were many predators in the forest that wouldn't mind having an easy dinner, and Yami was sure that they wouldn't discriminate between this human girl and their usual prey. And, if the girl did get killed, the inhabitants of the nearby village would blame Yami for sure. And Yami didn't want that.

By then, the girl had noticed that Yami wasn't doing anything to hurt her, and slowly opened her eyes to stare at Yami with curiosity. Suddenly, Yami moved towards her, and the girl whimpered in fear, struggling vainly once again. Yami caught the girl's chin in his hand, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"Listen," he said in a low voice, "I'm going to cut you loose, all right? You're not going to scream when I take the gag out, and you're not going to run back to town and tell everyone that you saw me, got it? I won't do anything to you if you don't tell anyone what happened. Understand?" The girl nodded. Yami could feel her shaking in his grasp, and an unfamiliar pang of pity rippled through him. He shook off the feeling, and pulled the rag out of the girl's mouth, standing back to get a better look at her face.

For a moment, he was taken aback by how beautiful she was. Her wide, violet eyes, her soft, bow-shaped lips, and her flushed ivory cheeks were almost completely visible in the moonlight. She had to be the most beautiful creature that Yami had ever seen in his life, which was saying a lot.

"A-are you g-going t-to hurt m-me?" the girl asked in a stuttering voice, staring up at Yami fearfully. Yami only sighed.

"No, I'm not going to hurt you. I don't go around picking up random townspeople lost in the forest, I don't suck their blood, I don't eat beating hearts right out of their chests, I don't turn into a hairy monster under a full moon, or any of that other rot that those stories might have told you. It's all much simpler than that."

With the engraved knife that he always carried with him, Yami began to saw at the coarse ropes as he spoke. The girl just watched him curiously, most likely processing what Yami had just said. When the ropes were cut, Yami opened his mouth to reiterate that the girl wasn't to tell anyone about him, but wasn't prepared for the girl to fall forward into his arms. Yami also wasn't prepared for the sudden feeling of warmth that flooded through his veins from his contact with the human. They stayed in that position for a bare second, the girl looking up at him with wide eyes and blushing cheeks, and then Yami pushed her back. She fell to the ground with a cry of pain, and her hand grabbed at her right ankle. It was only then that Yami noticed that her ankle was purple and swollen.

Ignoring another pang of pity, Yami pointed in the direction of the village, saying, "The town is that way. Remember that you won't tell anyone what happened. You never saw me." With that, Yami turned and walked decisively in the other direction. He stopped as he heard the girl's voice calling out to him.

"Wait! Please!"

/I should just walk away./ he thought to himself. /She's free now, she can go back to the village, it's none of my concern. Keep walking./ He nearly took another step, but then the frightened voice called out to him again.

"Please!"

/…Damn it./

Yami couldn't seem to make his feet move forward. Instead, he turned around, gazing with dark red eyes towards the girl. She froze, her eyes like shards of amethyst, capturing Yami's reflected image in them.

"What is it?" Yami said, trying to keep his tone cold and aloof. The girl hesitated a moment, then stuttered out an answer.

"I-I d-don't want t-to go b-back…" she said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the village. Yami blinked.

"Why the hell not?"

The girl looked down at the misty, leaf-covered ground for several moments, then said very softly, "It- it's not my home…"

Yami was becoming confused and quite irritated. "Well, I'm sure you could find someone there to help take you home. Don't bother me about it, I'll have nothing to do with it." He turned again, set on not stopping until he reached his own home, but the voice cried out to him again and his feet refused to budge.

"Please! I can't go back! Let me come with you!"

"What?" Yami spun around, not quite believing that the girl had asked him for such a favor. "I will have no involvement with humans!" he nearly shouted. "You have your place, and it's back in whatever village you happen to live in. Now, go!"

Yami made it five steps away before he stopped again. Soft, anguished sobs reached his sensitive ears, and that small, annoying pang in his heart grew stronger. He rolled his eyes skyward, and then resigned himself to the apparent fact that he was destined to have no peace that night. He turned and walked back to he clearing until he was standing only a few steps away from the girl once again.

The girl was still on the ground where she had fallen, and her hands were covering her face as she cried. Yami noticed, while looking her over, that in the places where the dark green fabric of her dress had been torn, there were bruises covering her skin. Some of them were old and yellow, and some of them were darker and fresher. Yami frowned slightly, his suspicion rising.

"Why don't you want to go back?" he asked quietly. The girl looked up quickly, her face startled and tear-stained, and then stared down at the ground again.

"M-My father…" she said softly, sniffling, "…he… he gets angry if I do anything wrong… and if I go back… I-I'm afraid that he m-might… k-kill me…" her voice failed her as she broke down again, sobbing into her hands.

Yami had stopped listening when the girl had finished talking. His eyes grew glazed as his mind fled far away from the present. A memory, a very ancient memory, had sprung up in his mind. There was a woman in a green dress, and she was crying into her hands. Yami didn't know why she was crying, or even who she was, but it seemed so very familiar…

"All right."

The girl looked up again as Yami spoke softly. "What?"

"All right. You can come with me."

A smile spread across the girl's face, and she began to thank him, but Yami cut her off. "This doesn't mean that you get to stay for nothing. Once your ankle is better, I expect you to do exactly as I say in order to stay, and if you do anything against my orders then you're going back to where you came from. Is that perfectly clear?"

The girl nodded. "Y-yes, I'll do anything you ask, I promise!" She then attempted to stand, but instead fell forward into Yami's arms. The night creature was once again assailed by the feeling of warmth, the foreign sensation all but overwhelming his senses, but he somehow he managed to keep his composure.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Yugi," the girl said softly, blushing and looking down at the ground.

Yugi? That was an odd name for a girl. Yami shrugged inwardly. It wasn't as if he knew what humans were naming their brats these days, and he didn't even know why he had asked. Yami eyed the girl's ankle, and then picked her up in his arms. Without another word, he retraced his steps back to his home.

A/N: What will happen next? Is Yami a vampire, a werewolf, or just plain weird? Will the townspeople come after him with pitchforks, torches, and yodeling music? Are Yami's resurfacing memories really just the result of bad tofu? Why is Yugi in a dress? Answers to these questions, and more, on the next episode of Lizzie's Fics: The Resurrection! . . R 'n R, please!

P.S. I am NOT gender bending!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Gah, I can't finish anything these days. Now that I FINALLY have this next chapter up I might be motivated to actually finish this story. Thanks to everyone that reviewed on the first chapter and a big hello to everyone that remembers me.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 2

It rose up slowly out of the forest as they came closer to it, turrets twisting upwards and rusted balconies leaning out over the untamed, misty gardens. Leafless trees stretched their skeletal fingers towards it, brushing against the roof's tattered shingles. The shutters of every window were closed tight, and a high iron-spiked fence around the entire grounds warned away intruders.

Yami heard the human's sharp intake of breath at the ominous sight, and her hand grabbed a hold of his shirt collar involuntarily.

"Relax. It's just a house."

The iron gates opened of their own accord, and Yami moved over the grounds without seeming to touch them. It was a talent that he had developed. The doors also opened on their own, and shut and locked themselves as soon as Yami and Yugi were inside.

Yami carried the girl through the wide main hall of the ancient house, up many winding flights of stairs, and finally to a bedroom somewhere on a high floor. The girl was set down on the bed, still awed by the size and mysterious, shadowed quality of the house.

"I'll be back in a moment," Yami said, exiting the room silently. Yugi watched him leave, then gazed around the room. The curtains and bedspreads were colored in dull purple and crimson shades, and nothing in the room was particularly bright except for the light of a few candles. The window curtains were drawn, even though all the windows that Yugi had seen from the outside of the house had been boarded up.

Rather suddenly, Yugi noticed a pair of luminous eyes watching curiously from the end of the bed. Yugi scooted backward warily, and several more pairs of eyes appeared. The eyes abruptly moved forward, and a group of black, furry, mouse-like creatures scurried across the bed.

Yugi let out a yelp, and fell backwards off of the bed. The eyes stared down from the edge of the bed as Yugi tried to stand, but because of the injured ankle she could only scramble across the floor into a corner of the room.

The eyes blinked a few times, then looked at each other, whiskers twitching, as if conversing in a way that Yugi couldn't hear or decipher. They seemed to decide something, then slowly crawled down the side of the bed. It was at that moment that Yami re-entered, some clothes over his arm, and the little creatures disappeared through a crack in the wall.

Yami blinked at the girl sitting in the corner, who was obviously frightened, and glanced at the crack where the black creatures had gone.

"Do they frighten you?" he asked in a conversational tone.

Yugi swallowed, then said, "They just startled me… that's all."

Yami nodded absently, tossing the clothes on the bed. He walked over to Yugi, picked her up, and placed her back on the bed.

"All right," he said, looking Yugi in the eye, "There are some rules that you're going to follow if you're going to stay here. You will never open any windows or doors leading outside during the day. You'll never go outside without my permission. If you see or hear anyone while you're outside come back in immediately and don't let them see you. You can go into any part of the house except for the eastern turret. Never, ever go up there."

Yami turned towards the door, saying as he left, "If you need anything, you can ask the kegawa. They'll do anything you ask unless I say otherwise. And, if you need to call me something, my name is Yami."

The door shut, and Yugi was alone in the room. She looked around the room once more, then picked up one of the articles of clothing that Yami had brought. One was a nightdress, but it wasn't like the overly-lacy ones that her father had bought. They were an older style, simple and comfortable.

Yugi smiled to herself. It probably wasn't the best accommodations in the world, but living with Yami was beating living with her father by several miles. After changing, which was rather difficult to do without standing up, Yugi let her long black, crimson, and blonde hair out of its braid. She looked at herself in the full-sized mirror for several moments. She remembered that, when she was very little, her hair used to stick up in several points like Yami's, but her father had made her comb it back into ponytails and braids until it didn't stand up anymore. She hadn't remembered that until she had seen Yami.

/We might look like twins if my hair was still like that/ Yugi thought absently.

Feeling too tired to try to comb her hair, Yugi lay in the bed and stared at the ceiling. It had animal faces carved into the wood, and though they were made to look menacing there seemed to be a sorrowful quality to them. In fact, Yugi had noticed that there was an air of sadness that pervaded the entire house. But, Yugi's mind wandered away from that observation to other problems.

Yugi was especially concerned that Yami would discover the secret that Yugi had been keeping all of his life. Yes, his. As in male. Yugi glanced down at himself and his flat chest, which was rather unbecoming of a young woman. Yami thought that Yugi was a girl, as had everyone in the village that Yugi had lived in, and Yugi didn't know how Yami would react if he found out the truth. But, of course, the people in the village had been oblivious for 17 years already, so keeping the secret from Yami shouldn't be that hard. Right?

Yugi sighed. He was already exhausted, and worrying about everything wasn't going to help that. Since Yami already believed that Yugi was a girl, then he could go on believing that. And even with the rules Yami had laid down, this was the freest that Yugi had ever felt in his life, and he didn't want to spoil that by revealing something that might cause him to lose that freedom. Feeling his eyelids grow heavy, Yugi pulled the covers over himself, blew out the candles on the stand next to the bed, and in a few moments was fast asleep.

* * *

Yugi awoke, slowly opening his eyes, and suddenly he sat up. It took him a few moments to recognize the unfamiliar surroundings and to recall the events of the previous day. His stomach growled loudly, the hunger almost painful. Of course, he hadn't eaten since noon the day before, so it was to be expected.

Suddenly, Yugi yelped and pulled the covers over himself. The same little creatures from the day before were staring at him from the edge of the bed. Yugi gulped, determined not to be afraid of them.

"Um… good morning," he said. The little creatures suddenly sped off in all directions, and Yugi jumped back, hitting his skull on the headboard. As he rubbed the back of his head gingerly, Yugi saw that some of the little creatures had laid out a dress on one of the chairs. The sound of the door opening made Yugi look up, and a kitchen cart with a covered tray on it was wheeled in by more of the little kegawa to the side of the bed. Yugi gaped, having never experienced such treatment.

He lifted the tray cover, and saw a steaming plate of eggs, ham, and toasted muffins along with a bowl of assorted fruits that he didn't recognize. His stomach growled again, and Yugi decided that he would wonder where the food had come from later.

After nearly inhaling the entire breakfast, Yugi noticed that the kegawa were still watching him from the edge of the bed. A few of them moved forward and removed the dishes, wheeling the tray out of the room.

"Uh… thank you for the breakfast," Yugi said. "I enjoyed it very much." The creatures seemed to converse with one another, and then one came forward. Yugi forced himself to stay where he was as the little ball of fur crept up to him. He flinched slightly as the thing nuzzled his hand, but then slowly relaxed. The dark fur was surprisingly soft, and up close it was actually rather cute. Yugi smiled, and a few of the others began to approach him. He giggled as the first one crawled up his arm and to his shoulder.

Suddenly, all of them zipped toward the door, bouncing up and down and making an odd purring noise. A couple of them nudged at the dress that had been laid out.

/Oh…/

"All right, I'm coming," Yugi said, and he got out of the bed only to fall back into it with a cry of pain. He had completely forgotten about his ankle, which was still swollen and sore. Yugi whimpered softly, slowly bringing his foot up onto the bed and gently touching the bruised skin. He jumped slightly as one of the kegawa suddenly appeared next to him. It nudged at his ankle, then looked up at Yugi quizzically.

"I twisted it yesterday, and it still hurts," Yugi explained to the little creature. It made a small purr in comprehension, and then it slid down the side of the bed and disappeared out the door. Yugi blinked, confused, but moments later the creature returned. It and several others were carrying a small clay bottle and a roll of bandages. Yugi leaned down to pick them up. The bottle wasn't marked, but Yugi had a guess as to what it was for.

"Is this for my ankle?" he asked. The little kegawa bounced up and down enthusiastically, so Yugi took that as a yes. He uncorked the bottle and poured a little of the substance into his hand. It was some kind of sweet-smelling oil, but Yugi couldn't determine exactly what the scent was. The little creatures pushed the bandages towards him, and Yugi spread some of the oil onto his ankle. He was amazed that, in just moments, the soreness began to dissipate into a sort of numbness. He wrapped the bandages around his ankle, and then tried to stand up. It still hurt a little, but he could walk. Yugi bowed gratefully to the kegawa.

"Thank you," he said. The little creatures bounced up and down happily. Yugi smiled, then went to the dress that had been laid out for him. He started to take off the nightdress, then noticed that the creatures were still watching him.

"Um… do you mind?" he asked, gesturing towards the dress. The kegawa scurried out of the room and the door shut behind them, though Yugi could still hear them purring outside the door. Satisfied that he had privacy, Yugi changed into the other dress. It was a very deep red, with flowing sleeves, a skirt that was almost too long for him, and a neckline that revealed his shoulders and collarbone. The fabric was soft and heavy, but Yugi couldn't tell what kind it was. The simplicity of the dress was different compared to the frilly outfits that he was used to, but it certainly wasn't unpleasant.

Yugi glanced at the door, making sure that it was still shut, then took a few of the cloths by the washbasin and folded them, stuffing them into the front of the dress. He adjusted them until they gave a satisfactory illusion of a pair of breasts.

Deciding not to bother with his shoes, Yugi then went to the door and saw the little creatures sitting outside in the hall. As soon as they saw Yugi, they began bouncing about excitedly. A few of them scampered up the fabric of the dress and settled on Yugi's shoulders, tickling his bare skin.

"Lead the way!" Yugi said happily to the kegawa remaining on the floor. The creatures scampered down the hallway, fast followed by Yugi. They led him down many different hallways, past faded paintings and dead flower vases. They eventually came to the twisting stairs, and the creatures hopped along down the steps. Yugi followed, wondering where they were taking him. He also wondered momentarily where Yami was, as he had not seen any sign of his rescuer since the previous night.

As they finally reached the end of the stairs, the creatures bounced towards one of many doors in the main hall that Yugi remembered seeing the night before. The door swung open, and the kegawa lead Yugi into the room. He almost fell over in amazement. The room was enormous, and every wall of it was covered with bookshelves. The dust on the leather book covers stirred as the creatures hopped around, excited at Yugi's awe-struck expression.

Yugi stepped forward into the room, tearing his eyes away from the bookshelves to see that there were tables, small couches, and a desk covered with papers.

/Well, I won't have to worry about getting bored…/ he thought to himself. Also in the room was a beautiful grand piano. Yugi walked over to it and inspected it; it was dusty, but otherwise there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. The creatures on his shoulders purred happily, and Yugi smiled as he went to inspect the books. All of them were very old, their leathers covers dry and their pages yellowed.

Yugi selected a title he found interesting, and sat on one of the velvet couches. All of the creatures gathered around him as he opened the book.

"Would you like me to read to you?" Yugi asked, and he laughed at the enthusiastic purr that he got in response. "All right then," he said, and began to read aloud.

* * *

Yami drifted past the covered furniture of the east turret towards his chair by the window, wondering if it had been a wise decision to let the human girl stay with him. Thus far, the human hadn't done anything to prove herself harmful, so Yami had no reason to tell her to leave. But still…

Since the previous night when the memory of a crying woman in a green dress had resurfaced, the world had become a much more confusing place in a very short amount of time. As far as Yami knew, he had always lived in this house alone, and had always been the inhuman monster that lurked in the forest. Yami had never had memory of anything else, until now.

The memory had brought up many questions. How had he known this woman? Did she live in the house, or somewhere else? Had he once lived somewhere else? If so, where? How had he ended up in the house, and how had he become this sunlight-fearing, deathless creature? Was he even sure that Yami was really his name?

Life had been a lot simpler before Yugi had shown up, but Yami still hadn't decided if it was a good thing or a bad thing. And, he couldn't prove that Yugi had caused the memory to resurface, so it appeared that the human had done nothing wrong, but that simply put Yami back where he had started from.

Almost unconsciously, Yami turned to look at the far wall of the turret. A painting hung there, covered by an old, dusty cloth. For as long as Yami could remember, he knew that he was never, ever supposed to look at that painting, and he had never questioned this. But now, he began to wonder. What was the painting of, and what would happen if he looked at it? And where did he get the idea that he should never look at it? Did someone tell him that, or had he decided it himself?

Yami hesitantly approached the next thought that came to him: Did the painting have anything to do with the woman in the green dress?

Yami's concentration was shattered by laughter ringing through the house, causing him to jump slightly. He didn't know if he was going to be able to get used to having someone else in the house. Yami closed his eyes and mentally searched through the rooms and hallways. He eventually located Yugi in the library, and within seconds the room materialized before him in his mind.

Yugi was sitting on one of the velvet sofas with a crowd of kegawa around her, and she was reading from a leather-bound book. Each time she came to a part that the creatures particularly liked, a wave of purrs rippled through the room and Yugi would giggle at their excitement as she kept reading.

Yami sighed, feeling confused and not knowing what to do about it. He listened to the story, recognizing it from having read it many times before. It was a love story, as many of the storybooks in the library were, full of brave warriors, white towers, and romantic sunsets. A pretty image, but nothing more.

Yugi laughed again as the creatures purred and bounced about excitedly. Yami was almost certain that he had heard human laughter somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where. Yet another mystery.

Watching the girl read aloud, Yami suddenly noticed just how beautiful Yugi was. Her slender body fit perfectly into the red gown, and her alabaster skin contrasted beautifully with the deep crimson. Her flushed face and luminescent eyes gave the illusion of a warm light glowing within her, and her laugh cascaded through the air as if it had wings.

/But nightwalkers cannot lust after humans/ Yami reminded himself. /I am helping this girl out of pity, and there is nothing more to it./

However, the tired hope that the darkness had not been able to quench knew that if this was true he wouldn't have to remind himself of it. Frustrated, Yami leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, welcoming unconsciousness so that his thoughts would be quieted.

A/N: Yes! It can be done! I've finished another chapter! cymbals crash And yes, for your information, I am having fun making Yugi dress up as a girl. cackles Will Yami find out? If so, how will he find out, and what will happen after he finds out? wink wink R&R, please!

P.S. Kegawa means furry or fuzzy in Japanese. I couldn't think of what to call them, so I dug my Japanese dictionary out.

P.S.S. Yes, I realize that the kegawa do seem like the sootballs from Spirited Away. I didn't realize that until very recently, long after I'd written this part, so please be nice.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Woohoo, new chapter! I might actually finish this one in less than a year. I've been trying to work on this one while also finishing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I figured I might want to finish before the next book comes out. slaps herself with wet noodle Bad Lizzie! Bad! You procrastinator! But, alas, I have done no work whatsoever on The Alone. Maybe I ought to finish this one first… Oh, well, on to Chapter 3!

Just in case somebody missed the disclaimer in the first chapter: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I do not make any profit from this, blah blah blah…

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 3

Yugi ended up spending much of the day in the library, exploring different books and trying to tune the dusty piano, which was refusing to cooperate. At one point he had searched for a clock to see how much time had passed, but the grandfather clock out in the hall looked as if it had stopped working years ago. Since none of the windows were open, and since Yami had specified that he wasn't to open any of them, it was impossible to tell the time of day. Yugi wondered often where Yami was, but wasn't sure if he should go looking for him or wait for Yami to summon him.

After several hours that Yugi wasn't able to count, he felt himself getting hungry again. The kegawa suddenly got very excited, and several of them skittered off through cracks in the walls and under the doors. A few of them bounded towards the door and stopped, looking back at Yugi expectantly.

Yugi followed the creatures out of the library, across the main hall, and through another pair of doors. Yugi's mouth dropped open slightly as he gazed into the dim room. Along one side of the room were several china cabinets filled with dust-covered dishes, glassware, and cutlery, and the other side contained an enormous fireplace. Oddly enough, the fireplace was not lit, but several candelabra stood on the mantel, their tiny flames flickering and dancing. Down the center of the long room was an enormous heavy wood table that stretched down to the other end of the room, and was laden with even more candles. At the end of the table closest to Yugi was an ornately carved wooden chair, and on the table a steaming plate of food. His stomach rumbling, Yugi went to sit down, then noticed a dark figure standing at the other end of the table.

Yami moved forward into the dim light of the candles, but would not, Yugi suddenly noticed, come very close to the fireplace mantel or the candles on the table. Yugi froze, suddenly not quite sure what to do in Yami's presence.

"Go on," Yami said, his quiet voice startling Yugi. "Eat."

Yugi sat down slowly, his eyes still on Yami, and then the smell of the food reminded him of his hunger. As he ate, he could feel Yami's eyes on him, and that was making him nervous. Halfway through his meal, Yugi glanced over at Yami, and the crimson eyes were still staring at him.

"A-Aren't you going to eat?" Yugi asked, trying to keep his voice at a normal tone. Yami tilted his head to one side, a mildly amused expression on his face.

"No. I don't need to eat."

Yugi frowned. "What do you mean? Don't you get hungry at all?"

Yami shrugged. "I don't know the feeling. I never have. I don't need food like humans do, and I can't say that I've ever understood why you have such a need for it."

Yugi blurted out the next question that popped into his mind before he could stop himself, "Well, if you're not human, then what are you?"

Yami only stared back at Yugi for several moments, and Yugi was about to stammer an apology for asking such a question when Yami spoke.

"I'm a nightwalker," he said simply. At Yugi's blank expression, he went on, "Nightwalkers are creatures that are deathless unless exposed to sunlight. There are very few others like me, and we're not particularly exciting, but for some reason you humans delight in making up stories about us. For instance, the sucking of blood and turning into wolf-like monsters under a full moon. All utter nonsense."

Yugi looked down at his plate, suddenly not very hungry anymore. He remembered the stories that were told in his village that warned children away from the forest, and he had never really been sure if he believed them or not. Emboldened by the strength of his curiosity, Yugi asked, "How did you become a nightwalker?"

Yami snorted. "You don't become a nightwalker. I've always been one."

"So you were born one?" Yugi said, and Yami paused. His eyes stared at a fixed point on the floor for several moments, and then he abruptly turned and walked out of the dining room.

"That's enough questions," he said coldly as he left, the door behind him slamming so hard that the dishes in the china cabinets rattled. Yugi remained sitting, feeling confused and hurt. Had he said something to offend Yami? A few of the kegawa crawled up the legs of the chair and nestled themselves in Yugi's lap. Yugi smiled down at them, glad that he had someone to keep him company.

"Shall we continue exploring?" he said, his mood brightening. The kegawa purred enthusiastically, and led Yugi out of the dining room and back up the stairs.

* * *

Yami sat in the dark seclusion of the eastern turret, glowering at nothing in particular. Yugi's questions had only succeeded in confusing him even more, if that was at all possible, and that only made the dark creature even more irritable.

/So you were born one/ Yugi's innocent question echoed through his mind. For a brief moment, Yami felt sorry that he had reacted so harshly at Yugi's question, but it made him realize that he didn't know how he had become a nightwalker. Was he born one? He had to be, he had no memory of ever being anything besides a nightwalker… but if that was true, then who was he born to? People don't just pop out of thin air in a puff of smoke, so he had to have some kind of a… of a…

Yami's thoughts were silenced as the image of the woman in the green dress appeared in his mind, and then suddenly the image changed. There was a woman in a yellow summer dress standing by a tree… and she was laughing and beckoning to him… Was it the same woman? Yami couldn't quite make out her face…

He brought back the memory of the crying woman to see if they were the same, but he couldn't quite make out her face, either. Then, the picture faded into dark night, and he could see a fire piercing the sky. There were dark figures all around him… they were chanting something that he couldn't quite hear, and he also couldn't make out their faces in the darkness. But, as Yami tried to look closer, he found that he couldn't move. Chains on his arms and legs held him down, and he suddenly felt a surge of an ancient emotion: fear. The chanting stopped, and pain lanced through his body, white-hot and piercing, and his scream echoed through the empty sky…

/You shall never escape/ a dark voice twisted with sadistic pleasure spoke in his mind. /The curse shall always haunt you…/

Yami sat up quickly, his breathing heavy, and he saw the familiar darkness of the eastern turret around him. Had that been a dream? Or was it… another memory? What curse had the voice been talking about? He could still feel an echo of the pain, and as he tried to remember the details of the image the pain only grew.

Frustrated, Yami decided to distract himself by seeing what Yugi was up to. Searching mentally through the house, he found Yugi in the attic. The girl was searching through some of the old trunks that Yami had almost forgotten were there, and had found one full of dresses and hats. Yugi was trying on the hats and modeling for the kegawa, who purred and bounced about. Yugi was laughing, and Yami had to stop himself from smiling at the sound. It was such a nice sound, though…

Then, Yugi pulled a white dress from the trunk. It had flowing, elbow-length sleeves and silver blossoms embroidered on the skirt, and as Yami looked at the dress, he no longer saw the attic nor Yugi.

/Oh, it's beautiful! I love it/ a feminine voice said from somewhere in his mind. Was it the same woman? He could see the white fabric and the silver flowers dancing about, but he couldn't see who was wearing the dress. And, as soon as it had come, the image faded. The pain that had ebbed away increased again, his head feeling as though it was about to split, and after several moments of silent deliberation Yami went decisively to the window.

The daylight was kept from entering by shutters and heavy drapes, and Yami grabbed a hold of the drapes, intent on opening them and flinging open the shutters to face the sunlight that was such a curse to him. He had often thought of doing this and ending what had thus far been a worthless life, and this was finally the time. But, Yami found himself hesitating. Why?

/The girl…/ his thoughts told him. What would happen to the girl if he was gone? Without him in the house, the kegawa would leave, and Yugi wouldn't be able to survive here all by herself.

/She could go back to the town/ another part of his mind argued, but he remembered when he had found Yugi, when the idea of going back to her father had terrified her to tears.

Unable to draw back the curtains and invite the fatal sunlight into the room, Yami turned and stalked away, feeling disgusted with himself, and yet somewhat relieved that something had stopped him. He didn't really know exactly what would happen if sunlight touched him; all he knew was that it would end his life. How it could be more painful than living, Yami didn't know, yet there was still a nagging fear of the unknown of death that remained in his mind. Yami smiled bitterly as he drifted down the staircase; one would think that, after living for so very long, a dark creature such as himself would not have any fear at all.

Yugi's laughter echoed through the house again, and Yami stopped on the stairs, listening to that beautiful sound so foreign to his ears, so inviting and yet he could not will himself to draw any closer to it. He would always fear that which he had never known…

A/N: Okay, I know that was short and sort of boring, but I needed to explain exactly what Yami was. And yes, I am making him be an ass to Yugi, but I'll make up for it. wink wink Reviews are welcomed and appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Yes! New chapter! Hehehe… Well, I've been rather disappointed with the number of reviews, but thanks to the new hit counter it looks as though people have at least been clicking on it. Much thanks to everyone who actually did review (which as of now is a grand total of two people) on the last chapter, I appreciate it very much.

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine, I don't make any money from this, I'm a pathetic writer that likes to entertain fantasies of young boys falling in love, blah blah blah, you get the idea.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 4

Yugi reclined on one of the dusty sofas, reading a book that he had found in Yami's extensive library. Or, trying to read. His eyes kept moving away from the pages and towards the stairwell that led to the east turret. Yugi had learned to be obedient from living with his father, but that had never managed to stifle his curiosity. He wondered what made it so different from the rest of the house and why it was so important to Yami that it be kept a secret.

Speaking of secretive, Yugi had rarely even seen Yami in the week that he had been there, and Yugi had actually found that he was rather disappointed at not seeing him very often. He was grateful to Yami, and wanted the dark creature to like him. Yugi wondered if Yami was avoiding him since Yugi had asked all those questions about him being a nightwalker. Yugi hadn't meant to be intrusive; he was just curious, and now that Yami was never around the east turret had caught his attention.

The young human was beginning to fear that he had picked a rather uninteresting book on purpose, allowing his mind to wander freely with speculations about the mysterious tower. Of course, he could have just stayed in the library to read instead of coming to the one sitting room in the entire house that contained the stairs leading to the turret, but that was beside the point.

Shifting his position again, Yugi tried without success to concentrate on his book. Finally, deciding that all his efforts were in vain, Yugi stood and went to peer up the stairwell. It was a spiral staircase, so he couldn't see very far up. His curiosity grew; what secret was Yami hiding in that dark tower? Almost unconsciously, Yugi climbed up one, two, three steps, eager to learn what the turret hid within its walls. He stopped himself suddenly as a thought occurred to him. Even though not knowing what was in the east turret was driving him crazy, going up there would put the home he had found with Yami in jeopardy, and that was the last thing Yugi wanted.

As Yugi stood on the stairs thinking, he failed to notice several pairs of eyes from under the sofa, watching him. They blinked a few times, seemed to converse with each other, then suddenly disappeared. Yugi managed to overcome his curiosity, deciding that it wasn't worth it, and stepped back down to the sitting room. Suddenly he yelped in surprise. Yami stood there, arms crossed, his intense eyes piercing right through Yugi's flesh.

"I specifically told you not to go up there," Yami said icily.

"I… I didn't! I wasn't! I… uh…" Yugi tried to formulate a coherent response, but Yami's hard eyes watching him were making him extremely nervous. Yami suddenly grabbed Yugi's arm, and in a mere second they were suddenly in Yugi's room. Yami dragged Yugi over to the bed and sat him down on it firmly.

"Since you chose to disobey my orders, you're going to be punished." Yami turned, left the room, and the door shut and locked behind him. Yugi only sat there in shock for a few moments, and then he stood and ran to the door. He pulled and pushed and pulled at it, but the doorknob wouldn't turn and the door wouldn't budge. He looked around for the kegawa, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Yugi sank to his knees. He couldn't believe that this was happening. He thought that he had finally escaped from his father's world, that he was finally free. But now…

Despair formed a thick knot deep in Yugi's stomach. The fear was back, that deep-rooted fear of being trapped behind locked doors that stole his breath and shattered his sanity. He curled up against the door, no longer seeing the room that was before him. He saw the tiny attic room of his old house, with a small cot and a crude table and chair his only furniture. He could pound on the heavy wooden door until his hands bled or pull at the bars on the window until he collapsed in exhaustion, but he would never be able to escape.

* * *

Yami sat staring out the open window of the east turret, looking out over the night-bathed forest. He couldn't get the terrified look on Yugi's face out of his head. Yami had figured that he was being lenient with Yugi, as Yugi had disobeyed his orders and Yami could do a lot worse than lock Yugi in her room for a day or so. And what did he care, anyway? What did the girl's well being mean to him? 

Yami knew that was a stupid question as soon as it passed through his mind. He was the one that had rescued the girl from the forest and given her a place to stay and food to eat. Of course he cared. What he couldn't figure out was why he cared.

Suddenly Yami silenced his thoughts. A frightened cry rang through the house. Knowing there was only one source, Yami closed his eyes and focused on Yugi's room. The image appeared in his mind, and he saw that Yugi was curled up in a ball beside the bedroom door. She appeared to be asleep.

Another cry sounded, and Yami saw that Yugi was crying out in her sleep. She must be having a nightmare, Yami thought. Yugi whimpered softly, curling up tighter, then she suddenly flung her hands up in front of her face, as if trying to protect herself from something.

"Let me out!" she screamed. "Let me out!" Yugi was so frightened that tears were beginning to course down her cheeks. Yami hadn't intended for the punishment to be this painful for Yugi, and in seconds he was in Yugi's room trying to shake the human awake.

Yugi sat up abruptly, her eyes wide and her body shaking. She cried out when she saw Yami, scampering backwards until she hit the door and could go no further. She put her arms up in defense, shutting her eyes tightly as if preparing for an attack. A few sobs escaped her lips as she sat there quivering with fear.

Yami blinked, feeling utterly confused. What was she so afraid of? He hadn't hurt her, he had just locked her in her room for a little while… Yami's brow creased in a puzzled frown as he noticed something. The shoulder of Yugi's dress had slipped down her arm, and since it had been big on Yugi in the first place, a good portion of her upper chest was exposed. Yami was quite sure that Yugi was of age to be a well-developed female, but the chest area was flat…

The human flinched as he heard Yami come closer, trembling with fear. Finally working up the courage to look up, Yugi saw Yami looking at him with a frown. Yugi blinked, and glanced down at himself. It was only then that he noticed that the dress had slipped down. Yugi snatched the fabric back over his chest and tried to scoot away from Yami, but there was nowhere to go.

"You're a male?" Yami asked after several moments of silence, his usually expressionless face betraying a hint of confusion. Yugi looked away, shame infusing his face with red.

"Yes…" he said quietly, trying to calm himself down. Still sniffling a bit, he wiped some of the tears from his face, then took a deep, shuddering breath.

"I… I know this looks strange… but I can explain…" he said, trying to regain his composure. "M-My mother died giving birth to me, and my father never got over it. He had really wanted a girl, and he refused to remarry, so…" Yugi swallowed, nervous under Yami's gaze. "… he made me his daughter. The only reason I have a boy's name is because my mother requested that my name would be Yugi, and Father would never disrespect her wishes."

Yugi twisted the hem of his dress between his fingers as he talked. "I tried to do everything that he wanted me to, but there was always something that I did wrong. He'd beat me whenever I did something he didn't like, and if he was really angry, he'd lock me in my room. Sometimes it was only a day, and sometimes it was for weeks."

A sad smile crept onto Yugi's face. "I only survived because of Father's maid, Mai. She brought me food when I was locked in, and sometimes books so that I would have something to do. She would tell me about my mother sometimes when Father was out…" Yugi stopped, lost in memory for a moment.

"If he kept such a tight watch over you, how did you end up in the forest?" Yami asked. Yugi looked up suddenly, surprised. He hadn't thought that Yami was really listening.

"I… I never did explain that, did I? Well, I was walking home from school, and I always take the back streets instead of the main street to avoid the crowds. There are these three boys at school that have always picked on me, and when there was no one else around they grabbed me from behind. They gagged me and dragged me to the forest. They tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me, pushing me around and laughing whenever I fell."

Yugi hugged himself, suddenly cold. "Then they tied me to that tree and practiced throwing rocks at me. Lucky for me, they didn't have very good aim. It was starting to get dark by then, and they were daring each other to go farther into the forest. Then, they heard some noise in the bushes and they got scared and ran off, leaving me there."

The human stared down at his hands, more tears beginning to fall. "I… I sort of thought that here, it would be… I don't know… different. So, when you locked the door, I panicked… a little."

Yugi jumped as Yami took his chin and tilted his head up. Yugi looked back at the dark creature with tear-filled eyes.

"I apologize for causing you so much distress," Yami said quietly. He raised a hand, and there was a click as the door unlocked, then he said decisively, "I promise that I will not lock you in here for so long as your father did, but I will punish you if you ever try to enter the east turret again. Do you understand?"

Yugi nodded, and Yami seemed satisfied. "Since you seem to have had punishment enough, I'll let you off. But don't disobey me again." With that, Yami stood and left the room. Yugi waited a few moments, then let out a relieved sigh. The despair had been lifted. He smiled to himself, his hope returning to him. Yami wasn't angry that Yugi had been hiding his gender from him; in fact, he had even apologized for the punishment!

Standing up shakily and making his way to the bed, Yugi realized that his debt to Yami had suddenly doubled. First Yami had given him a home, and now he had given him freedom. Even though it was not obvious at first, Yugi believed that Yami had a kind heart. His smile widened as an ironic thought entered his head. The people in his village had always talked of the evils that lurked in the forest, and yet Yami, a nightwalker, was the only one that had ever shown Yugi kindness (with the possible exception of Mai). How very odd that people could be so prejudiced against Yami without even really knowing him.

/But I know him/ Yugi thought as he fell in to bed, emotionally drained. /I know that he's good. I know better than all of them/ And with that thought, Yugi fell asleep.

A/N: Whew! Finally done with that one. They're starting to fall for each other! -dances- By the way, I'm interested to hear your theories on what would be the best way to kill Yugi's father. Roast him on a spit? Throw him off a cliff? Behead him with a spork? All three? Be creative, I like to hear ways to kill characters that I hate. -evil laugh- REVIEW LIKE MAD, YE READERS!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Yay, reviews! They make me happy. Right, I decided to update today because I'll be leaving for Arizona and won't be back for a week, and then two days after that school starts, so I might be a tad busy. I do have most of the chapters after this pretty well planned out, though, so it shouldn't take an incredible amount of work. (I say that now, wait until I'm in chemistry again.) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I have no relation or contact with its creator whatsoever, I make no money from this (unfortunately), blah blah blah…

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 5

Yami wandered aimlessly about the house, hoping against hope that he could find something to distract him from his thoughts. The visions were becoming more vivid and the dreams were becoming more frequent, and neither the books in his library nor the sounds of the night forest had been able to stay them. He had become familiar with the sight of the woman crying and the transition to hooded men chanting under the moonlight, but it was as though he was watching scenes from someone else's life; the visions held little meaning for him.

He was also tired, more tired than he could ever remember being. His mind was exhausted from analyzing the visions and finding nothing. His emotions, which had not been stirred up at all for years upon years, ripped mercilessly through his faded heart. Sadness, despair, loss, loneliness… yes, most of all loneliness. It had been only a small thing nagging him at the back of his mind for so long, but now it was full-blown and almost crippling in its intensity.

Yami's body had never needed much sleep in the first place, but now he barely slept at all, and it had taken its toll on him. Thoughts and visions kept sleep from him, and when he did manage to fall asleep it was usually because he passed out from exhaustion. Then, his sleep would be filled with dreams of the things that he now knew so well yet did not understand.

As he descended down one of the many spiral staircases towards the main hall, Yami thought of Yugi. He had slowly admitted to himself that he had rather enjoyed having Yugi in the house with him. The human served as a good distraction from his thoughts; he was intelligent, sweet, and, as a bonus, quite pretty. Yami was going to have to get used to calling Yugi "he" in his mind; he had been rather surprised to find out that Yugi wasn't a female, but somehow it hadn't bothered him very much. No matter what gender Yugi was, he was still the same Yugi, and Yami felt much more bothered by the fact that humans were actually doing things like this to their children.

Yami heard a noise and stopped suddenly, looking down at the bottom of the stairs. Yugi, adorned in a pale blue dress, was down on his knees at the bottom of the stairs and had his head down near the floor, apparently trying to look through one of the cracks in the wall. Yami blinked, slightly curious, and he glided down to stand by Yugi.

"Look, I'm not mad at you," Yugi was saying. "You can come out now, I promise that I'm not angry!"

"Who are you talking to?"

Yugi jumped at the sound of Yami's voice and looked up quickly, then relaxed as he saw whom it was. "It's the kegawa. They won't come out." He leaned down again and said into the hole, "I know you're in there! You have to come out sometime!"

Several frightened squeaks came from the hole and there was the sound of scurrying feet, and then it was silent again. Yugi sat up and put his hands on his hips, letting out a frustrated sigh. Yami looked at Yugi, then at the wall, then back at Yugi.

"I think that they think that I'm mad at them for telling you that I was going up the stairs to the turret yesterday, but I'm not! I know that they were just doing their _job_ and that _I_ was the one breaking the rules!" Yugi raised his voice for that last sentence to make sure that the kegawa heard him, and he scowled at the wall when they stayed silent.

Yami felt a small smile touch his lips, which surprised him, but it had been a long succession of sleepless nights and he didn't have the energy to try and keep up a stoic appearance. He had already shown Yugi that he was soft, why should he keep worrying about it?

"Here, I'll get them to come out," Yami said. He snapped his fingers, and immediately several of the kegawa scampered out of the hole to sit at Yami's feet. They looked up at him expectantly, and he raised an eyebrow at them.

"Don't look at me. He's the one that wants to talk to you." The kegawa suddenly seemed to realize that Yugi was also there, and they tried to hide behind Yami's feet. Yami rolled his eyes and stepped out from in front of them. The little creatures looked at Yami, then at each other, and then back at Yami.

"Well, go on," Yami said, gesturing vaguely at Yugi, who was still crouched on the floor. Very reluctantly, a few of the kegawa inched forward. Yugi smiled, and stretched out a hand.

"See, I'm not angry," he said, letting a few of them crawl onto his palm, then he giggled as they scampered up his arm to his shoulders. Yugi stood, still cradling a few of the creatures in his hands, and smiled at Yami. He was surprised when Yami smiled back. There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"Do you…" Yami started, then stopped. Yugi looked at him curiously. "Do I what?" he asked when Yami hesitated.

Yami wasn't sure why the thought had suddenly popped into his head, but as his confusion about his past grew he found himself becoming more and more desperate for a distraction from his thoughts.

"Do you want to take a walk outside?" he finally asked.

Yugi blinked. "But… the sun… wouldn't it…?"

Yami shook his head. "No, it's nighttime now." With all of the shutters closed and the curtains drawn, he sometimes forgot whether it was day or night himself.

Yugi blinked again, then smiled shyly. "I guess I've lost track of time… I don't know anymore whether it's day or night." Yugi looked down at the purring kegawa in his hands, a sad look coming over his face, but it quickly passed and he looked up again with a smile.

"I'd love to."

* * *

Outside the air was cool, a soft breeze rustling through the branches and caressing the somewhat overgrown garden around the ancient house. The waning moon cast an eerie light over the strange plants that grew there, bathing everything in silver shadow.

Yugi was so happy to finally be outside again, even though it was night. He had always treasured the times when he was out of doors, as those times had been few when he lived with his father. Not having bothered to put any shoes on, Yugi walked barefoot past enormous purple flowers with curled petals and ferns with thin leaves and tiny red blossoms that were beginning to droop. All of the trees in the garden were bare except for a few leaves that clung stubbornly to the branches, refusing to let autumn overcome them.

Yugi walked ahead of Yami, unaware that the dark creature was watching him closely in fascination. Yugi had a sort of grace that Yami had never seen in any other human, and despite his dark past he still remained in awe of the world and had a need to explore it.

In Yami's experience, humans that had gone through pain and suffering tended to isolate themselves and shy away from anything new. They had lost their trust in the world, and held it in contempt rather than in esteem.

But Yugi, though he was scarred with loss and abuse, was somehow different. How had he managed to survive the destructive tendencies of the vicious scum he called a father without losing himself? It took Yami a moment to realize that he admired Yugi for this. While Yugi had managed to hold on to a scrap of his innocence, Yami had lost himself completely. There was no clear memory of a past, and no hope of ever having a future.

The woman in the green dress was crying again. Yami tried to reach her, but something was pulling him away. Slowly, the woman became farther away and her sobs became fainter.

/They're taking me away… I'll never see her again…/

Yami blinked, shocked back into the present by a pair of large violet eyes staring at him.

"Are you all right, Yami?" Yugi asked, concerned. The kegawa on his shoulders cooed uncertainly, looking back and forth from Yami to Yugi.

"I… I'm fine. Just… thinking."

"What about?" Yugi asked as he sat down on a stone bench beneath one of the skeletal trees. "If you don't mind me asking, that is," he added hastily.

Yami sighed, and sat down next to Yugi. "I'm not really sure myself," he said softly. He rested an elbow on his lap and set his chin in his hand. He looked over at Yugi to see that the boy was mimicking him. Yami raised an eyebrow at him, and Yugi did the same. The kegawa purred loudly on his shoulders, a few of them scurrying down Yugi's back to crawl up onto Yami's shoulders.

"Mai told me that if you start forgetting what you're thinking about, then it's the first sign that you're losing your wits," Yugi said cheerfully.

"I must have lost my wits a long time ago, then," Yami said, and smiled when Yugi laughed. It was such a pretty sound.

"I see you're still wearing dresses," Yami said, eyeing the pale blue of the fabric that Yugi had on. It had long, snug sleeves, a skirt that reached down to his toes, and a v-shaped neckline embroidered with golden butterflies. Yugi looked at him quizzically.

"Still?" he repeated.

Yami shrugged. "You don't have to wear a female's clothes if you don't want to. There are probably some men's clothes somewhere in the attic, and I don't really care either way."

Yugi smiled shyly, still ecstatic that the deception involving his gender hadn't made Yami angry. "Okay… but I've never even tried on men's clothes before. Father never let me because he was so afraid of someone seeing that I wasn't really a girl." Yugi fell silent, his gaze drifting away from Yami.

"Hey, Yami?" Yugi said, fixating his gaze on a bluish fern next to his foot.

"Yes?"

"I… I'm sorry if I made you mad when I asked you those questions about your past a few days ago. I didn't mean to be nosy, I really didn't…"

Yami snorted. "You've been worrying over _that_?" He suddenly found himself regretting that comment as Yugi's face colored in embarrassment. He held back a sigh; all these unfamiliar emotions were giving him a headache, an ailment that hadn't affected him for decades.

"No, you didn't make me mad. I just…" Yami searched for any sufficient explanation that didn't involve the truth, "I just don't like to talk about it, that's all."

Yugi nodded. "Okay."

Yami blinked. That was it? It was all okay, just like that? Yugi just accepted that Yami didn't want to tell him anything about himself, something that Yugi probably had a right to know seeing as he was a guest in Yami's house. He felt his admiration for Yugi go up several points.

"Yami? Can I ask you something else?" Yugi asked quietly.

"Yes."

"Why did you help me in the forest?"

Yami sat in shocked silence for a moment. Where had that question come from? He hesitated, then his mind latched on to what he had been thinking about only minutes before and he blurted out, "Because you're different from other people, Yugi," he said. Yugi blinked at him.

"Other humans, I mean," Yami went on. "The only humans I've ever come into contact with have hated me. Hate is an easy thing to see in a person's eyes if it's strong enough."

Yami looked at Yugi with a mildly curious expression. "But in you, all I saw was some fear, which was understandable, and maybe some curiosity. You had no hate for me, and that was something that I'd never seen before. You didn't hate me before you knew me…" Yami fell silent, and the only sounds were the wind in the trees and the soft purrs of the kegawa.

"I don't like to judge people that I don't know," Yugi said softly, and he looked up at Yami. "And now that I do know you a little, I see no reason to hate you." Yugi blushed a little, averting his gaze again. "In fact… I see lots of reasons to like you rather than hate you."

Yami's sense of time screeched to a halt. Yugi actually LIKED him! Yami felt something that he faintly recognized as hope surge in his chest, the intensity of it managing to make his headache worse. It took him several moments to realize that one of the kegawa was nudging at his hand to get his attention. Yami looked down, and the little creature looked over at Yugi. Yami followed the gaze, and saw that Yugi was hugging himself and shivering. Yami hadn't noticed that the breeze had gotten stronger and colder since they had come outside.

"We ought to go inside," he said, and Yugi nodded. He stood, and out of the corner of his eye saw Yami taking his cloak off. Wasn't he cold? Then, to Yugi's surprise, Yami wrapped the thick cloak around Yugi's shoulders, and then before Yugi could even blink Yami had turned and was walking back towards the front door. The kegawa purred happily, evidently pleased with the kind gesture, and Yugi smiled to himself as he followed Yami back into the house.

A/N: dances I'm actually pleased with this one. I had so much trouble getting in everything that I wanted to get in without it sounding awkward or choppy. Or does it sound awkward and choppy? I dunno, I'm just glad that I'm done with all that #&$! editing. Takes longer than the actual writing, don't ya know. Review, all you lovely people, or I shall pulverize you with decorative soap!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Wow. Complete and total lack of updates for months. That's me. Well, this chapter is an accumulation of stuff that struck me during school when I actually had the time to write (curse you, chemistry!), and now it's actually come to something rather than a jumbled mass of meaningless rant.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 6

Yugi surveyed himself in the dusty mirror in a corner of the attic, not sure if he liked what he saw or not. After finding that Yami didn't really care what kind of clothes Yugi wore, Yugi had decided to try on some men's clothes. After digging through the attic, Yugi had found a pair of black trousers, a white dress shirt and a dark gray dress jacket that fit him reasonably well, though the jacket was a little big on him. He hadn't been able to find a pair of shoes that fit him without looking ridiculously large, and so the image in the mirror was barefoot.

Tilting his head to the side, Yugi was still trying to convince himself that it was actually his own reflection that he was looking at. He had never seen himself in anything besides dresses before, and he didn't know if he was going to be able to get used to this new look. The kegawa crowded around his feet and looked up at his reflection.

"What do you think?" he asked, looking down at them. One of the black creatures made a soft snorting noise, and the other kegawa purred in agreement.

"I don't like it much, either," Yugi said. He rubbed his fingertips against his right temple absently; he had woken up that morning with a headache, and although it had seemed harmless then, it had grown progressively worse as the day went on. Pouting at the mirror, Yugi turned around, then yelped and jumped back several feet. Yami was sitting on one of the many wooden crates, looking Yugi up and down.

"It looks good on you," he said.

Yugi had to take a moment to let his heart slow down to a normal rate. "I wish you wouldn't sneak up on me like that," he said breathlessly. Yami only shrugged.

"Sorry."

Yugi pretended to scowl at Yami, then looked back at the mirror. "Do you really think it looks good?" he asked. "I think it looks rather odd."

"Well, you don't have to wear it if you don't want to. I said that I didn't care, remember?"

"Yeah…" Yugi said with a sigh, then he frowned and began to rub his right temple again.

"Are you feeling all right?" Yami asked, his voice betraying a hint of concern.

"It's just a headache," Yugi said with a forced smile. "It's nothing, really. It should go away in a little while." But the smile faded quickly, and Yugi felt himself grow dizzy. "Actually, maybe I should lie down for a little bit. I feel a little bit dizzy…"

Yami frowned, wondering what could cause Yugi to be dizzy; it wasn't as though he had been spinning around in circles. /Humans…/ Yami thought to himself.

"All right," he said. "Here, let me…"

Yami touched Yugi's arm and before Yugi could even blink the dim, dusty attic had been replaced by his own room.

"You need to teach me how to do that one of these days," Yugi said with a smile. The corner of Yami's lip twitched upward for a bare second.

"You ought to get some rest and try to get rid of that headache," Yami said, then he turned to the doorway and suddenly disappeared. Yugi let his smile linger for a few moments, then his brow creased and he put a hand to his head. His headache was growing steadily worse, and the floor beneath his feet suddenly seemed uneven. Feeling rather warm, Yugi pulled off the dress jacket and, without bothering to change, climbed into bed. Maybe if he just slept it off…

* * *

Yami reclined on one of the many sofas in the library, lazily skimming the pages of a book that he had read several times before. The only sound was the crinkling of ancient paper and a tree branch scratching at the window outside. Yami felt his eyelids growing heavy and did not resist, knowing that he was in desperate need of sleep no matter what dreams haunted him. He laid his head down on one of the dusty pillows, just about to drift off when suddenly a mass of squealing black fur launched itself at him. Yami almost fell off the sofa in surprise, then said irritably, "What the hell do you want!"

The kegawa bounced around frantically, squeaking at Yami in alarm. Even to someone that couldn't understand them it was apparent that they were anxious about something. And Yami, who could usually understand what they were saying, could barely comprehend their frantic chirps.

"Wait, slow down…" he tried to say, but his voice was drowned out by their panicked squeals. Yami tried to listen (while trying to ignore his growing headache), and managed to make out "ill". Ill? Who was ill? Yami was about to tell them to shove off and leave him alone when something suddenly hit him.

Yugi is human, humans become ill… and ill humans die… With a speed Yami rarely exercised, he had located Yugi in his room and appeared at his bedside. Yugi was asleep, but obviously not well. His face was flushed and his breathing was ragged and uneven. He had kicked the covers away at some point, and as a result was shivering violently as he tossed about.

Yami stared blankly at the sick child, having no idea what to do. Nightwalkers never got sick. Several of the kegawa squeaked at him almost angrily, willing him to do something. Yami pulled the covers over Yugi's body and the boy sighed softly as the shivering subsided. Slowly, almost reluctantly, Yami rested his hand on the boy's forehead. He drew his hand back quickly; to his cold skin the heat of Yugi's fever was almost painfully intense.

Yami felt something nudge at his ankle. Looking down, he saw a few of the kegawa with a blue glass bottle full of liquid. Medicine for Yugi, of course… Yami momentarily wondered where the kegawa had gotten the bottle. Then, Yugi whimpered in his sleep, and Yami looked down at the boy. Even in sickness, Yugi was still beautiful.

Yami took the bottle from the kegawa and gently lifted Yugi up into a sitting position. Yugi mumbled something in his sleep, then his eyes opened a fraction of an inch. Still half-asleep Yugi watched Yami uncork the bottle, then closed his eyes and moaned softly as the pain in his head grew.

"Yugi, drink this," Yami said, and Yugi opened his eyes a little to see Yami's hand holding the bottle. "It will make you feel better. Just a mouthful should do it."

Yugi opened his mouth obligingly and Yami put the bottle to his lips. Cool, tasteless liquid trickled down his throat, which was red and raw from coughing. He felt himself being laid down again, and a wonderfully cool hand rested on his forehead.

"Yami…" Yugi whispered, "Thank you…" And he tumbled back into blissful oblivion. Yami pulled the covers up to Yugi's chin, then pulled up a chair for himself at the bedside. The kegawa let out several amused purrs at their master's uncharacteristic display of affection, but Yami's glare silenced them. Suddenly feeling exhausted, Yami leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. Perhaps both of them would feel better after getting some sleep.

* * *

_The first thing Yami was aware of was that it was hot. Why was it so hot? And if it was so hot, why was he shivering? He opened his eyes slowly, and pain seared through his head at the sight of light. It flickered across the ceiling, firelight, most likely. Everything else was blurred shadow around him. Yami struggled to sit up in what he realized was a bed, but he felt so tired and weak._

_Then, a cool hand rested on his burning forehead, and a cinnamon-sweetened voice said to him, "Just rest, child. You'll feel better once you get some sleep." Yami's eyes had fallen closed again, and even though he wanted so much to open them and see the source of the voice, he was so, so tired…_

Yami's eyes snapped open and he sat up straight in his chair, looking around. Another dream? But that one wasn't anything like the others… Had the voice been that same woman from the other dreams? Yami's eyes shifted to focus on Yugi's sleeping form. The human's face was still flushed with heat of fever, and it seemed as though he was in pain. Had that dream… Could it have been… Had he remembered himself being sick? Nightwalkers don't get sick…

Yugi moaned and shifted his position, and Yami turned his attention back to him. Why did something so fragile have to be so beautiful? Yami's hand drifted up and stopped inches from Yugi's face. He was almost afraid to touch him…

Then, with surprising quickness, Yugi's hand darted out from under the covers to grab Yami's. Yami gasped audibly at the feel of the heat of Yugi's hand, and then he slowly relaxed. The warmth actually felt rather nice. It gradually spread from his hand up to his arm, then into his shoulder… Yami felt himself become drowsy, and then he heard a soft moan. Looking up, Yami was startled to see Yugi staring back at him with half-lidded eyes.

Yugi breathed out, "Is Father mad at me, Mai?" Yami blinked, confused, then realized that Yugi must be delirious. He squeezed Yugi's hand gently.

"No, Yugi. No one's angry at you," he said softly.

"But… I ran away… he always told me that he'd kill me if I did it again…"

Before he could stop himself, Yami blurted out a quizzical "Again?"

"I went out the window to see the summer festival when I was ten, remember? Father put bars on the window after that and kept me in my room for almost three weeks. He told everyone else that I was sick…"

"But… you didn't really run away. It wasn't your fault that some idiotic kids have nothing better to do with their time than pick on you."

Yugi smiled, but it was a bitter smile. "Do you think Father would really care about that? Somehow it would be my fault… it's always my fault…"

Then Yugi closed his eyes and said softly, "I had the most wonderful dream, though…" Yami leaned forward slightly. "When I was in the forest, someone found me… a man that lives in the forest. He says he's called a nightwalker. They're supposed to be evil, I think, but he was very kind. He lived in this big house with lots of rooms, and a huge library full of every book you could imagine. But the windows are always shut and he never sees the sun at all. I think it makes him sad…"

Yami sat still, enraptured by the sound of Yugi's voice describing what he thought of as a "wonderful dream".

"I liked it there, Mai… being there with him… such a nice dream…" Yugi sighed, then his grip on Yami's hand relaxed. Soon, he was asleep again, breathing slow and deep. Yami stared down at the human boy, still holding onto his hand, and remained that way for hours, mesmerized by the fact that Yugi liked being with him.

/I like being with you, too…/

A/N: That chapter actually took about three months to write… not that I was working on it diligently, of course, just a paragraph or so every so often. Anywho, I hope ya'll enjoyed it, and please review. Feed me!


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! Yes, I managed to finish this chapter over break, and I'm quite pleased with it. I ended up making some big changes to the original version of this, and I think it's a lot better than it was. Anyhoo, onward to the next chapter!

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 7

Yugi scanned the sheets of music in front of him, every so often glancing at Yami who sat on one of the couches in the library, eyes closed. Yugi smiled to himself, set the music on the piano, and began to play another song. Ever since Yugi had woken up in bed five days ago with Yami sitting at his bedside, the two had become much more comfortable in each other's company. Yugi didn't remember much of when he had been sick, but he remembered enough to know that Yami had taken care of him. They spent most of their time together now; they didn't really do anything in particular other than talk about trivial things or sit with each other and read, but Yugi liked it that way. And, although it might have been his imagination, Yugi thought that Yami smiled a bit more than he used to.

At the present, Yugi had finally found a book of piano music after much searching and was happily flipping through it and playing whatever songs he thought were interesting. His distaste for men's clothes having been cemented after getting sick on the one day he had ever worn them, Yugi was wearing the white dress with silver flowers that he had found in the attic. Yami had told him several times afterward that he really didn't care what Yugi wore, but Yugi still decided to go with what he knew and was comfortable in. He finished the song he had been playing, and then said, "Yami?"

"Hmm?" Yami replied, not opening his eyes.

"Do you think we could go outside again tonight? Once it's dark?"

"As long as you wear a coat this time, then yes."

Yugi chuckled. "All right," he said, and then he thought of something else that he had been meaning to ask. "Yami?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I could go outside during the day sometime? As long as no one sees me?"

Yami opened one eye to look at Yugi for a long moment. "I… I miss seeing the sun…" Yugi said tentatively. Yami continued to stare at Yugi for several moments, then closed his eye again and said, "All right. As long as no one sees you."

Yugi smiled, then looked back at the music book only to realize that he had run out of songs to play. Without really thinking about it, Yugi began to play a song that he remembered from when he had still lived with his father, a time that seemed so long ago now.

Yami, meanwhile, was thinking about how happy Yugi would be to go outside again, as humans were not meant to be locked up in sunless rooms all the time. Then, he was pulled from his thoughts as he listened to the song Yugi was playing. He opened his eyes a fraction of an inch, the vaguely sad melody pulling at rusted, thousand-year-old memories. Looking up, Yami watched the young human play the familiar tune and whisper the words to himself. The song ended, the bitterly sweet sound of the last chord lingering in the air for a moment before it faded.

"Would you play that song again?" Yami asked quietly. Yugi looked up quickly; he hadn't realized that Yami had really been listening. "And sing the words this time," Yami added.

Yugi looked at him warily for a moment, then nodded, and the song began again. Yugi's soft, pleasant voice sang words that described an era long past, reminiscing about days of honor, peace, and light. As the melody progressed, the faded bookshelves and dust-infused air that surrounded Yami melted away. A wood-floored room with a fireplace and several pillowed armchairs replaced it. The mantel was adorned with dried flowers and the room smelled of hot chocolate.

To one side of the fireplace was a piano, and a woman dressed in white sat at the wooden bench. Snow was falling outside the window, but that room seemed to be a safe haven hidden away from the jealous world. The woman, her delicate fingers stroking the melodious keys, sang the sweet yet melancholy song that was so familiar to Yami.

As the song ended, the woman turned to look at Yami, and finally her features were clear in his mind. Her pale face was full of a smile and warm eyes that were such a deep purple they were almost black. Strands of midnight streaked with red sunset were pinned up at the back of her head, a few locks falling to frame her face.

For several moments, Yami attempted in vain to put a name to the face of this angelic woman. His eyes widened as a word ancient to his lips rose up from the graveyard of his memory.

"Mother…" he whispered, and the image fell away, the walls of the library reappearing and the books taking their original places amongst the dust. The next thing that he became aware of was a pair of violet eyes staring at him with concern.

"Are you all right, Yami?" Yugi asked. Yami only stared back dazedly, not able to formulate a reply.

"You're crying," Yugi said, a note of shock in his voice.

Yami's eyes widened slightly, and he reached up to touch his cheek. There was indeed wetness on his skin, and Yami pulled his hand away to stare at the droplets on the tips of his fingers with mild curiosity. His eyes then shifted to Yugi, who was looking back at Yami with a mix of concern and confusion in his expression.

"What song was that?" Yami asked, his voice almost a whisper.

"Mai taught it to me when my father was out. She didn't know the name of it, but she told me that my mother used to play it and sing for my father. She said that it's a very old song, hundreds of years old."

Yugi looked down, twisting the white fabric of his dress in his fingers. "I played it once when father was home. He hit me and told me to never play it again."

Yugi looked up at Yami and asked, "Have you heard it before?"

Yami blinked a few times as if he had just woken up and nodded slightly. "Yes," he said quietly. "I have. It was a long time ago…" Yami fell silent, deep in the mystery of his past.

Yugi looked at him sadly for a moment, then stood and turned to leave, thinking that he ought to leave Yami alone with his thoughts. He stopped suddenly as a cold hand grasped his own and pulled him back to where he had been sitting. His wide eyes stared into deep, impenetrable red for several moments.

" I didn't tell you to leave," Yami said in a soft voice that threatened to betray the emotional turmoil storming within him. Yugi searched for a reply, but found that his voice had frozen in his throat. "I… don't want you to leave…" Yami said, his voice dropping to a whisper.

The cold, dusty stones that time and pain had stacked around Yami's soul were beginning to crumble, and it frightened Yami like nothing ever had before. All of the memories that he had kept locked away were flooding into his consciousness again, and the storm was almost too much to bear.

_The woman was crying… his mother was crying…The men were chanting under the moonlight… and he could hear his own screams…_

If all of the walls fell away, whether they be considered the walls of a fortress or of a prison, Yami would be left completely vulnerable to the pain of the memories that he had shut out so long ago... Alone in this cold, lightless void that he wanted so badly to escape from, that he had almost killed himself to escape from…

The warmth of Yugi's hand felt safe and comforting, the darkness and cold shying away from the human's touch. Yami embraced it almost desperately, feeling himself slipping away from the world outside of his own mind.

Yugi, on the other hand, was quite confused. The intense, almost scared look on Yami's face was beginning to alarm him. Yami rarely had any expression at all, and Yugi had hardly ever seen him look surprised, let alone scared.

After several minutes of stifling silence, Yugi finally worked up the courage to say something.

"Y-Yami?"

Yami flinched, blinked once slowly, and then turned his head to look at Yugi.

"A-are you all r-right?" Yugi managed to stammer out, suddenly nervous under Yami's intense stare. Yami's brow creased slightly, and his gaze fell on his and Yugi's clasped hands. He squeezed Yugi's hand tightly.

"I don't want you to leave…" Yami said again, and his eyes tentatively looked up at Yugi's face. Yugi smiled, trying to be comforting.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said softly, holding Yami's hand in both his own. It came to his attention that Yami's skin was icily cold, and he began rubbing the hand gently to warm it up.

Yami put his other hand on top of Yugi's, and their eyes met. Yami tried vainly to speak, trying to tell Yugi what was going on inside of him and ask him to help stop the storm of memories, but no words came.

/You're the only one that can help me, Yugi… You're the only one that cares…/

Yami's eyes widened suddenly and his body tensed as he felt an unexpected warmth on his lips. He inhaled sharply as he realized what was causing the sensation. Yugi pulled away from the kiss, a gentle smile on his face. Yami could only stare back, trying to keep his hands from shaking.

"Yami, I… I don't know what's going on, but…" Yugi squeezed Yami's hand comfortingly, "… you helped me when I needed help, and I'm very grateful for that." Yugi moved even closer, his face only inches away from Yami's.

"Now I want to help you. Just tell me how, and I'll do it."

Yami's gaze didn't falter as Yugi spoke, but its intensity fell away and the surface of his deep pain of memory began to well up in the dark crimson. Then, before Yugi could even react, Yami's lips were crushed against his own in a hungry, almost desperate kiss.

Yugi gave a startled cry that was muffled by Yami's mouth on his, and suddenly the kiss broke off. Yami pulled away, a genuinely frightened look on his face, while Yugi only stared back.

"D-did I hurt you?" Yami asked. Yugi shook his head.

"No… you just startled me, that's all." He scooted closer to Yami, and he was surprised when Yami moved away from him.

"You're sure I didn't hurt you?" Yami asked again.

"Yes, I'm sure," Yugi said, chuckling. "I'm not going to break, Yami."

Yugi moved in close again, and gave Yami a gentler, more heartfelt kiss. Eventually, Yami relaxed, and wrapped his arms around Yugi's waist as he explored the young human's mouth. Yugi's hands moved up Yami's shoulders and clasped around his neck as he welcomed Yami's wandering touch. He flinched slightly at the feel of Yami's cold hands, but slowly Yami's skin became warm as the two became more and more entangled in each other.

In need of air, Yugi eventually had to break the kiss, gasping. Yami began trailing kisses down the young human's neck, reveling in the heat of Yugi's body as the shadows of his past were chased away. Yugi moaned softly as Yami's lips ravished his virgin skin, and then he frowned as a thought entered his head. He put a finger on Yami's lips, and the dark creature looked up.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Shouldn't we…" Yugi swallowed, then continued, "Shouldn't we be doing this in a bed?"

Yami blinked, then looked Yugi in the eye. "Are you sure you want that? I won't do anything that you don't want me to do."

Yugi bit his lip and his gaze fell. "I'm sure, but…" Yugi's voice dropped to a whisper, "…only if you want me…"

Yami gently but firmly raised Yugi's chin so that their eyes met. "Of course I want you," he said. "Just make sure that you tell me to stop if I do anything that you don't want me to do, all right?"

Yugi smiled and nodded, and then he was swept up in Yami's arms. In less than a second, they were in Yugi's room. Yami set the human down on the large bed and resumed trailing kisses across Yugi's collarbone. Yugi's violet eyes slid closed, and he let out a shuddering sigh as he wrapped his arms around Yami, rubbing his hands up and down the dark creature's back.

Yami's hands moved to Yugi's back, slowly undoing the intricate, criss-crossing white ribbons that laced up the back of the dress. Yugi shivered slightly as Yami's hands caressed his bare back and gently pulled the fabric away from his shoulders. Becoming bolder, Yugi tugged at Yami's shirt with one hand, and his other hand explored its way down Yami's neck and under his shirt.

/He's always so cold…/ Yugi thought absently. /He's cold all over…/

The white dress and Yami's shirt were soon discarded at the edge of the bed, and Yugi lay naked and moaning on top of the covers as Yami's talented mouth worked its way down his chest. Yugi buried his hands in Yami's hair, which was surprisingly soft, and arched his back as he let out another low moan of pleasure. He laid his head back on the satin pillow, and let his eyes fall closed.

Yugi was in absolute ecstasy, physically and emotionally. There was a foreign yet not undesired feeling of being wanted, of being needed, a feeling that Yugi had been starved of all his life. Maybe…maybe he would finally have the love that he had so often yearned for.

* * *

Yugi slowly became aware of his surroundings, awake but not feeling the need or want to open his eyes. His stomach growled in protest, but the bed was so warm and comfortable. Hazy memories floated back into his consciousness, and his eyes flew open suddenly. He didn't feel Yami next to him. As Yugi sat up, fearing that Yami had left him during the night, he saw that all the covers were tucked around his own body. At the edge of the bed, he saw Yami curled up with only a thin sheet over his naked form.

Yugi crawled over to the dark creature and pulled him into his arms, making a nest of blankets around the two of them. Yami's skin was frigid, and Yugi rubbed his hands up and down Yami's back to try and warm him up.

Yami sighed, relaxing into Yugi's embrace. Yugi smiled, brushing a few stray locks of hair out of Yami's face. Yami looked so much more peaceful than he had the night before. Yugi wondered to himself what could have evoked so much emotional pain in him.

Suddenly, Yami's eyes fluttered open to look up at Yugi. Yugi smiled down at him, and kissed him on the forehead.

"Good morning," he said. Yami gave him a rare smile, pulling himself closer to Yugi.

"You should've told me that I was stealing all the blankets, Yami," Yugi said. "You're freezing!" Yugi squeezed him tightly for a brief moment, then pulled more of the blankets up around Yami's shoulders.

"You didn't steal them," Yami mumbled. "You were cold, so I covered you." Yugi blinked. "Well, you didn't have to give me all of them. You're cold,

too…"  
"It's always cold," Yami said suddenly, cutting Yugi off. Looking down, Yugi could see the faraway look from the previous night in Yami's eyes.

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked. Yami looked up at him slowly.

"It's what I am," he said. "A nightwalker cannot produce heat from within its own skin, so blankets are useless. And, to be in direct sunlight for too long would kill me." Yami smiled bitterly. "I can't even get very close to the candles…"

Yugi looked at Yami sadly, not quite knowing what to say. Then, Yami frowned and began to speak again.

"No… it is the curse that would kill me, not the sun," he said slowly, as if unsure of what he was saying. "The curse is made to destroy itself if it senses a large amount of light, and if it is destroyed while it is still inside of me, then I would also be destroyed… That's what would happen…"

Yugi watched Yami closely. It seemed that he was only just remembering all of this. How was it possible that he could have forgotten about such a terrible thing?

"So…" Yami continued, "the only way that I can feel warmth is by absorbing the body heat of a living being."

Yami took Yugi's hand and placed it against his cheek. "The cold only goes away when I'm near you…" he whispered.

Yugi was stunned. How could Yami possibly endure this kind of torture? This curse, whatever it was, had made him into a creature that was neither alive nor dead, one that could neither live nor rest peacefully. Yugi opened his mouth to speak, but Yami put a finger over his lips.

"I don't want you to feel sorry for me. I have no use for it." Yami caressed Yugi's face gently. "I just want you to stay…" he said, letting his eyes fall closed. "Just stay with me…"

Yugi tightened his hold around Yami and kissed his forehead gently. "Yes… I want to stay here more than anything else…"  
Yami looked up, his eyes open again and full of wondering. "Why do you want to stay here, Yugi? With me?"

"Because…" Yugi paused for a moment. "Because you're the first person that's really wanted me."

Yugi's eyes darkened with memories. "I don't have anything to go back to…" he said softly. "If my father found me, he'd kill me…" Tears welled up in his eyes, and then he felt Yami's lips on his.

Pulling away from the kiss, Yami said softly, "I'll protect you, Yugi. Just stay with me, and I will protect you."

Yugi smiled through his tears, words not seeming necessary to express his thanks. Yami kissed him again, gently prying Yugi's lips apart to explore his mouth. They both fell back onto the pillows, and Yugi decided that breakfast could wait a little while.

A/N: Altogether, now: AWWWWW! Yes, they finally got together. Took me long enough. This was actually the first full chapter that I wrote; everything else was just notes and outlines when this was written, and it's undergone a LOT of editing since then. I hope you liked it, and please review!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I deeply apologize for not updating this story in so long. I had to keep up with school and work and my writing got bumped down on my list of priorities. But, I'm back now, and I'm hoping to finish this story and I have two other stories in the works that I hope to post. The Alone may be discontinued; I need to go back and look at it and see if I can find the inspiration that I had for it originally.

Anywho, on to the fic!

Chapter 8

Yugi sat on the edge of one of the many balconies jutting out from the sides of the house, his legs dangling over the side. The sun was setting over the mountains in the distance, spreading a red-gold light over the thick forest below. Although he was tired, Yugi was very happy.

It was only two nights ago that Yami and Yugi had first made love, and ever since then Yugi had felt as though he was floating along down a calm river. It was the most wonderful feeling he ever remembered having. Today, Yugi had been outside for most of the afternoon. Although it had been cold because of the approaching winter, the sun had been out and brightly shining down on the forest and the house nestled within it. It had felt so wonderful to be out in the sun again; it seemed like so long since he had seen daylight. The only thing that made him sad was that he had to enjoy it alone; neither Yami nor the kegawa could survive in the sun, which, though it was warm and comforting to Yugi, could kill Yami and cause the kegawa to simply disappear.

Now, Yugi was high up on the balcony watching the sunset, his legs tired from running around in the garden all day (something that he had rarely gotten to do as a child), and quite ready to get some sleep. As soon as the sun had sunk low enough that it was only a faint glow on the horizon, Yugi stood and went back into the house. As soon as he had closed the door, the kegawa made a flying leap at him, purring wildly.

"Did you miss me that much?" Yugi asked, then giggled as some of the little black creatures climbed up to tickle his neck.

"Did you have fun?" a voice asked. Yugi looked up to see Yami standing in the shadow of the doorway. Yugi smiled and nodded.

"Yes, it was wonderful," he said. Yami smiled back. Yugi stepped over to Yami, the kegawa still purring and clinging to his clothing. He looked up at Yami shyly, then quickly planted a chaste kiss on his lips. Yami's smile widened, and, tracing Yugi's cheek with his fingertips, leaned in for another kiss. The kegawa began making a very deep purring sound, and Yugi broke the kiss laughing. He leaned his head against Yami's shoulder, taking one of Yami's hands and rubbing it gently, an action that was quickly becoming a habit. He unsuccessfully tried to suppress a yawn.

"Tired?" Yami asked. Yugi nodded, and they suddenly found themselves in the bedroom. Yugi shed his cloak and his shoes and fell into bed. Yami kissed his forehead affectionately, and within moments Yugi was asleep. Yami sat on the edge of the bed, watching Yugi's sleeping form. His brow creased in a frown as he fell deep into his own thoughts. For the past couple of days he had been trying to remember all that he could about his mother and his childhood, but aside from knowing that he had had a mother and a childhood he hadn't managed to formulate much else.

The thing that haunted him most was the covered painting in the east turret. He hadn't yet worked up the courage to look at it. Yami also hadn't yet worked up the courage to ask Yugi to help him, which he had been meaning to do. Even though taking the cloth off the painting seemed like a simple task, the thought of what might be behind the painting and what memories might arise from it terrified him (an emotion that he was not used to at all). He doubted that he could weather the storm without Yugi, but there was an irrational fear nagging him in the back of his mind, a fear that Yugi would only laugh at him despite the fact that Yugi had been nothing but kind and loving since they had met.

Yami's frown deepened. Images of his mother and of unknown men in black cloaks were constantly flashing through his mind, but they were disconnected and unclear. He would have to tell Yugi at some point, before he really lost his mind. Yami lay down on top of the covers next to the human, listening to Yugi's steady breathing. He decided that he would tell Yugi as soon as he woke up. Yami closed his eyes, and within minutes Yugi's soft breath had lulled Yami to sleep.

* * *

Yugi awoke feeling warm and rested. He sat up, expecting to see Yami lying next to him, but instead Yami was sitting in a chair next to the bed.

"Good morning," Yami said when he saw that Yugi was awake.

"Good morning," Yugi replied, stretching. "How long have you been awake?"

"About an hour," Yami said. Yugi frowned, looking at Yami a bit closer.

"Did you sleep well, Yami? You don't look very good."

Yami ran a hand through his hair. He actually seemed nervous, which was highly unusual. "Yugi, I…" he started, "I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

Yugi nodded. "Okay… what about?"

"Well, a couple days ago when you were playing that… that song, I remembered some… things. About my past."

Yugi frowned slightly. What had Yami forgotten?

Yami sighed. Yugi couldn't understand why Yami was so nervous.

"But these things, they… they don't make much sense right now, they're just… random images. There's nothing really specific about any of them, but…"

Yami paused again, running his hand through his hair. Yugi got out of bed and went over to Yami, taking his hand and rubbing it soothingly. It was suddenly clear to him: Yami hadn't just forgotten a few things about his past. He didn't remember anything. Yami took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

"In the east turret, there's a painting, and it's been covered up for as long as I can remember. For some reason, I know that I'm not supposed to take the cover off, but I don't know why. It's just something… something that I know. But I think that, if I look at it, it might help me remember."

Yami looked up at Yugi in an almost shy manner, then quickly looked down at his lap again. "I just… I haven't been, uh… able to, uh… do it yet."

Yugi kneeled down and looked Yami in the eye. "Do you want me to help you?" Yugi asked. Yami just nodded. Yugi smiled at him and pulled Yami into his arms.

"Of course I will, Yami. We'll figure it all out, okay?"

Yami nodded again, closing his eyes and leaning into Yugi's touch. Yugi was surprised to find that Yami was trembling slightly. His past was very uncertain territory, and Yugi imagined that it was probably very frightening for Yami to not know where he had come from, or even who he really was.

"When do you want to do this?" Yugi asked when Yami seemed to have recovered a bit.

"Now?" Yami asked.

"Okay," Yugi said, and they were suddenly in a room that Yugi had never seen before. There weren't any candles lit, so it was very dark, and the air smelled musty and damp. Yugi hugged himself, suddenly cold. The room had an uneasy, almost oppressive feel to it, and the uncomfortable feeling of being trapped came over Yugi.

Yami lit a few candles, but even then their light seemed confined to a small area, as though the darkness was too dense to be broken. Yugi could see an armchair sitting by a window with heavy drapes. The only other piece of furniture in the room that wasn't covered with a sheet was a dusty table next to the armchair. Looking around, Yugi saw the walls were bare except for one item. On the opposite side of the window, right next to the door, there was something hanging on the wall covered by a cloth. Yugi assumed it to be the painting Yami had spoken of.

The two of them stepped over to the painting. Yami seemed wary of it, as though something might jump out from behind the cloth and attack them. Yugi took Yami's hand, trying to reassure him. Yami squeezed Yugi's hand gratefully, then took a corner of the cloth in his other hand. He took a deep breath, then pulled the cloth down in one fluid motion. The dusty fabric cascaded to the floor, and the two of them stared at the revealed painting.

It was a woman, a woman with warm, deep violet eyes and long black hair with streaks of red in it. She was wearing a dark green dress with cream-colored lace around the neckline, and there was a silver chain around her neck with a gold ring on it. But that was not what surprised Yugi. In the woman's lap there was a boy of maybe three or four years old, wearing clothes that were a style of many centuries past. He was painted with a smile on his face, and one of his hands grasped the woman's hand. His hair, oddly colored with black, gold, and crimson, stuck out in all directions, and his jagged bangs fell into his dark red eyes.

"Yami…" Yugi said softly, breaking the silence, but Yami didn't seem to hear him. He stepped forward slowly, as though in a trance, staring intently at the painting. Slowly, he reached out and touched the painting where the child's hand held onto the woman's. There were several long moments of silence.

"That's…" Yami said finally. "That's me…" he said softly. "And that's my mother." His voice became thick with overwhelming emotion. Yugi could feel tears welling up in his eyes, then he gasped as Yami fell to his knees.

"Yami!" he cried, but Yami didn't seem to hear him. He was still in an entranced state, staring up at the portrait that had faded through the centuries. Suddenly, Yami could remember. He remembered his mother clearly, and why he had no memory of a father. He remembered who those cloaked men were, and what they had done to him under the moonlight so long ago.

Yami found that he could no longer hold in his grief; it was just too much for him to keep back. A single tear fell first and was followed by many. The raw pain that he had kept pent-up throughout the centuries began to consume him from within. He suddenly remembered why he had covered the painting and vowed never to look at it again. It was because he had not wanted to experience this pain again, this pain of being alone in the cold darkness with only his bitter memories.

But… he wasn't alone. Not anymore. He could feel Yugi's arms around him, Yugi's body holding him up against the storm. There was warmth and there was light, and there was a soothing voice to whisper words of love to him. He wasn't alone.

Yami wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, Yugi holding him while the grief came and passed. He felt exhausted after it had all been let out and didn't feel like moving, but he knew that he would have to tell Yugi everything eventually.

Slowly, Yami raised his head. Yugi's eyes looked back at him worriedly, and Yami tried to reassure him with a weak smile. Without having to say a word, Yugi helped Yami up and they sat on one of the sheet-covered sofas. Yami took a deep, shuddering breath, and felt Yugi take his hand.

"You remember now, don't you," Yugi said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," Yami said, nodding. "Almost everything."

There were several more moments of silence. Yugi waited patiently until Yami was ready, not wanting to rush him.

"I remember my mother now," Yami began, a smile touching his lips. "I remember the house we lived in. It was on the edge of the town, with huge trees all around that would blossom in the spring and a stream that came down from the mountains."

Yami paused for a moment, savoring that sweet memory, but knowing that he would have to move on from it.

"I have no memories of my father before I turned twelve. It had always been just me and my mother. She made and mended dresses for the other women in the town, and her sister's husband was a weaver, so they often did business together. The other women in the town loved the dresses that she made, but…"

He sighed and went on, "… for some reason that I didn't understand, the other women in the village never liked to talk to my mother. The only one that ever visited us regularly was her sister. Whenever we went into town, people would stare at us and whisper things to each other. I tried to ask my mother why they did that, but she never gave me a direct answer."

Yami paused again, and looked over at the painting. "When I was twelve, a strange man showed up at our house. The only thing I remember about him now is that he had eyes like mine. He and my mother talked alone for a while, and then she shouted at him to get out. He left, and we didn't see him again for three years.

"A few months later during the winter, my mother sent me up my aunt's house to get something, but there was a storm and I had to stay at my aunt's. When her husband had gone to bed, I asked her the same question I had asked my mother, about why people stared at us and whispered behind our backs. I think that my aunt had had a little bit too much to drink that night, otherwise she wouldn't have told me.

"My mother had always worn a gold ring on a chain around her neck, and my aunt told me that my father had given it to her before I was born. He had gone off to fight in a war in some far-off place that I'd never heard of, and he promised that when he got back they would get married. But, of course, he had never come back, and my mother had to raise me by herself, and the reason that everyone always stared whenever we went by was because she was an unmarried mother and I was an illegitimate child."

Yami paused again, and Yugi remembered a woman that used to live in his town when he was very little. She had twin daughters with long, blonde hair and bright blue eyes. The girls had been very nice and Yugi had played with them a couple times when he had been allowed to go outside, but his father never wanted him associating with the girls or their mother. When Yugi was seven or eight, the woman and her daughters simply disappeared and no one ever spoke of them again. Yugi wondered if the same horrible thing that had happened to Yami and his mother had happened to that woman and her daughters, and that they had finally been forced out of town because of it.

"Three years later, my father came back," Yami went on. "But he didn't come alone. There were four other men with him, and they were all dressed in strange black cloaks and were wearing heavy gold chains with a large golden eye on each. My father told my mother that he wanted to take me on his travels for a while. My mother refused, and told them to leave. They did, but only for the moment. They came back a few days later during the night and dragged us out of the house, took a bunch of things including the picture, then burnt it down. Two of the men grabbed me and one held a knife to my throat, telling my mother that if she didn't cooperate they would kill me."

Yami took another deep breath, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. Yugi squeezed his hand and rubbed it gently, and eventually Yami opened his eyes again and continued.

"They took us a long ways through the forest and over the mountains, going towards the east. We eventually stopped somewhere near this general area," Yami gestured vaguely towards the window, "and that was where they separated us. Some of the men took me towards the foot of the mountains, and the rest of the men, along with my father, took my mother into the forest."

Slowly, a tear escaped and fled down Yami's cheek. "I could hear her crying. I tried to get back to her, but I wasn't strong enough." Yami looked up at the painting again. "She was wearing that dress," he said in a whisper.

Yugi scooted closer and put his arms around Yami, fearing another breakdown.

"That was the last time I saw her…" Yami said quietly. He put his head against Yugi's shoulder and was silent for several minutes. Eventually, he sat up again, took another shuddering breath and went on.

"We got to the foot of the mountains, and there was a strange stone structure in the shape of an oval with an altar in the center. It was late afternoon when we got there, and they just tied me up and then sat around. Just before nightfall, the rest of the men and my father arrived. They chained me down to the altar, and my father started asking me strange questions. He asked me if I'd ever killed anyone, which I hadn't, and he asked if I'd ever wanted to. I said no. He seemed disappointed, then said that I soon wouldn't have any other choice, that it was all I'd be good for."

Yami had to pause again. He was grasping Yugi's hand so tightly that it was almost painful. Yugi could only sit there, wishing that he knew a better way to comfort Yami.

"After that, there was only pain," Yami continued. "I can remember the men all around me in black cloaks. They were chanting something in a language that I didn't know. My father stood at the foot of the altar and talked for a long time about this "Guild of the Sennen" and how it was his destiny to make the will and my destiny to carry out his will. I stopped paying attention after a while because all I could think about was how much it hurt. I wasn't sure what was causing the pain. They didn't seem to be doing anything to me. It wasn't until later that I learned what they had done to me.

"I think that I must have passed out sometime during the night. I woke up the next day, but I was inside a cave somewhere in the mountains, and none of the men would let me go outside. I eventually learned that I wasn't supposed to be in the sun. As soon as night fell, we left, and I didn't return here for a long time.

"I'm not sure how long I traveled with my father. I didn't really have any concept of time, but I remember what they made me do… what they turned me into."

Yami smiled bitterly. "They made me immortal, and used another spell to control me. They used me…" Yami had to stop for a moment, his voice becoming strained. Yugi held on to his hand tighter.

"They used me to kill people, Yugi. Hundreds of people. Whole villages disappeared overnight. And it went on for years… I can't imagine how many people must have died…"

Yugi pulled Yami close to him. "It wasn't your fault, Yami," Yugi said. "You had no control over what they did. They were cowards who needed someone else to do their work for them."

Yami shook his head, shutting his eyes. "No… they didn't have complete control over me. If I had really tried to break away from them, I could have done it eventually. I was strong enough. But… I…"

Yugi felt Yami's body shaking. "I _enjoyed_ it, Yugi… I started to enjoy killing people. It was a thrill." Yami put a hand over his face, obviously ashamed of himself. "I think I secretly hated all of them," he said. "They could walk in sunlight, and I could only hide in the darkness and the cold. I began to believe my father when he said that all humans were worthless parasites that deserved to die; it was all I ever heard. And I began to believe it.

"I only resisted when they made me destroy a school. There was a woman there, a teacher, I suppose, and she tried to stand between me and the children as if she could protect them." Yami looked up at the painting. "She looked just like my mother. I had almost forgotten her by then, after all of the hideous lies that had been pumped into me by my father. But, I tried to resist killing her. They made me eventually, but I tried to resist."

Yami paused for a moment. "Shortly after that, one of the men came to me while everyone else was asleep. He said that he knew that I hadn't been completely consumed by the curse, and that there was a chance that I could escape it. He revealed that he had been working to destroy the cult, but that the only way he could do that would be by keeping them from using me. Therefore, he thought it his duty to help me escape.

"This man told me that my father had become involved in some kind of cult while he was in the military. He became completely obsessed with it, and pursued it for years instead of returning to my mother. The cult is based on a dark magic that was practiced by a civilization that has long vanished, and eventually my father began to believe that he was somehow destined to carry out its legacy. The man said that most of what this cult claims is false, but my father believed in it so strongly that he wanted to bring my mother and me into it. My mother knew that it was ludicrous and refused.

"Eventually, my father became the leader of this cult. When he did, he discovered a very dangerous but very powerful spell. It's basically an immortality spell. It allows a person to be completely invincible to magical and physical attack. He knew that if the cult had a commodity such as that, they would be able to dominate the whole continent. He would have cast it on himself, but he knew the consequences of it. An immortal being would not have been able to walk in the sun, or even feel warmth. He decided that whoever he put the spell on would have to be his heir, and lead the cult on into the future. Then, he remembered that he had a son.

"I didn't understand everything that the man had told me at the time, but I knew that I had to escape. I didn't have the desire to kill any longer. This man thought so, too, because lately my father had more and more trouble controlling me. Apparently, I'd almost turned on the cult members a couple times, though I don't remember much of it. If my father ever lost control, then it was possible that I could destroy everything in my path until the sun came up. So, the man set me free and told me to head south. It was snowing that night, but I hardly felt the cold anymore. When I reached the top of a hill, I looked back at the tents where my father and his men were. A patrol from some nearby city was heading towards them, and there was frantic shouting coming from the camp. I assumed that some kind of authorities had finally caught up with them, and without me to protect them they had no way of defending themselves.

"I don't know what happened to that man. Maybe he got killed in the fight, or maybe he was rewarded for ending the cult single-handedly. Either way, I never saw any of them again. I wandered for a long time, traveling at night and hiding in darkness during the day. Eventually, I found my way back here. I remembered that my father had taken my mother somewhere in the forest, and so I asked around in a village near here and someone said that he remembered a woman like my mother living in an old house in the middle of the forest. There was also an old man that lived there and took care of the house.

"I found the house, but my mother wasn't there. He said he remembered her, but that she'd died almost fifteen years ago. I hadn't any idea that it had been that long since I'd seen her…

"He said that while she was there, there were always two strange men in dark cloaks that guarded the house, but when she died they had left. I assumed that the men had been there to keep my mother from coming after me, and I supposed that my father may have wanted to come back and try to convert my mother to the cult after his world conquest was finished."

Yami looked up at the painting again. "I lived here with the old man until he died. No one complained about me living here, so I stayed. All of the things that had been taken out of my mother's house were here, and by that time I had forgotten the name of the village we had lived in. I didn't even know if it still existed."

There was a moment of silence. Yugi wondered for a moment if Yami had finished, then he began speaking again.

"I sat around and looked at my mother's things often. I had nothing else to do. At some point, I decided that there was too much pain for me to remember her and all that had happened. I put all of her things in boxes in the attic. I don't remember why I didn't just put this painting in the attic, but I do remember covering it up and vowing never to look at it again. Time went by, and the memories faded away until I didn't even remember who I was or where I was from. I didn't even remember why I had covered that painting. Eventually, the only name I remembered having was Yami, which was what the Sennen Guild called me. It means darkness."

"What was your real name?" Yugi asked.

Yami shook his head. "I don't remember," he said.

Yugi felt tears well up in his eyes. He had thought that _his_ life was hard, but Yami's had been nearly unbearable.

"I had forgotten…" Yami said softly. "I had forgotten her." He sounded ashamed.

"But you remember her now, Yami," Yugi said. "You remember her now."

Yami nodded. He suddenly looked exhausted. Reliving so many horrible memories must have drained him of all his energy. Yugi let Yami lay his head on his shoulder, and Yami slowly relaxed into Yugi's warmth.

"Thank you, Yugi…" he murmured, and then fell into a much-needed sleep.

A/N: That took so incredibly long to write. XP Thanks to all of the folks who reviewed on the last chapter, I'm sorry that all of you had to wait so long for this chapter. I'll try to get the next one up in a more timely fashion. Review, please!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Hey, look, another chapter! And it didn't take me three months! dances How amazing is that? This chapter is quite a bit shorter than the last one, but I don't have the next part written yet and I felt like I needed to update. However, I'm going to be in Europe for a couple weeks, so I might not get done with the next chapter until after that (probably sometime in July). Thank you to everyone that reviewed!

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 9

Yugi jerked awake suddenly, not sure of what had woken him. He looked around at the unfamiliar room, then memories of the painting and Yami's story came back to him. Yami was lying across the sofa, his head in Yugi's lap. Yugi smiled and gently brushed a few strands of hair out of Yami's eyes. Trying not to wake Yami, he stretched, his neck and back aching from having fallen asleep sitting up. His eyes wandered over to the painting.

It was obviously ancient, and it was miraculous that it was still intact after so long. The clothes were of a style that Yugi had only seen in history books. Yugi's eyes lingered on the happy child sitting in the woman's lap. The boy was obviously Yami, but there was something inherently different between the Yami in the picture and the Yami that lay asleep next to Yugi. The little boy in the painting still had his innocence, and didn't know of the evil that would someday fall upon him. Yugi had to look away, fearing that he might start crying, but then he noticed something. There was a little brass nameplate on the bottom of the frame.

Yugi carefully laid Yami's head on the sofa, stood, and went to inspect the nameplate more closely. There were letters engraved on it, but the brass was so grimy that they were unreadable. Using a corner of the cloth that had once covered the picture, Yugi wiped the nameplate clean. He could read the names. It said "Hikaru Hana and child Atemu". Yugi read the names several times over. He now knew that Yami's real name was Atemu, but that wasn't what shocked him. He had seen the name Hikaru Hana before, but he couldn't place where. He searched his memory, but found nothing.

"Yugi?"

Yugi turned to see that Yami had woken and was sitting up. Yugi quickly went over to Yami and sat down next to him.

"How do you feel?" Yugi asked.

"I feel all right," Yami said rather sleepily. He looked over at the painting. "What were you looking at?"

Yugi smiled. "There's a nameplate on the frame, Yami."

Yami looked at Yugi quickly. "What does it say?" he asked slowly.

"Your… your real name is Atemu," Yugi said.

Yami mouthed the name. "Atemu…" he said softly. "That was my name, wasn't it… And my mother?"

"Hikaru Hana," Yugi said softly. Yami's eyes began to fill with tears. He whispered her name several times over, as if afraid that he would forget it again. A smile flitted across his face.

Yugi smiled and wrapped his arms around Yami, glad that Yami was finally able to come to terms with his past. But something nagged at Yugi in the back of his mind; he had seen the name Hikaru Hana _somewhere_ before, but where? Yugi then noticed that Yami was nuzzling his neck gently, and he abruptly decided that he could try to figure it out later.

Yami transported them back to the bedroom. Yugi was quite glad to be out of the cold, confined east turret and willingly fell back onto the bed, allowing Yami to climb on top of him and start kissing his way down his collarbone. Yugi wrapped his arms around Yami's neck, his hands rubbing warmth into Yami's skin, and Yami hummed in appreciation. Yami began to move farther down Yugi's chest, planting butterfly kisses on the pale skin as he went. Yugi sighed happily.

"Mmm… Atemu…" Yugi said softly, deciding to use Yami's real name. Yami stopped suddenly and Yugi looked up, fearing that his use of the name had only brought up more painful memories. Yami crawled back up Yugi's body and looked down at him with an unreadable expression.

To Yugi's relief, Yami smiled at him and said, "Say that again, please."

Yugi smiled back, and whispered, "Atemu…"

Yami's smile widened. Yugi decided that from then on he would only use Yami's real name, since it seemed to make him so happy. Then, on a sudden whim, Yugi leaned forward and whispered in Yami's ear, "I love you, Atemu."

Yami's eyes widened. He hadn't expected that. Before Yami could formulate a reply Yugi leaned forward and kissed him. He didn't expect Yami to say it back to him so soon; he just wanted Yami to know that he was there for him. Even though Yami couldn't say it back just yet, he showed his appreciation thoroughly for the next several hours.

* * *

Yami opened his eyes, his dreams fading out of his memory as he awoke. The first thing he saw was Yugi lying next to him, and the sight made him smile. Yugi was already awake, and Yami saw that he was holding something in his hands and studying it closely. Yami scooted over to Yugi and put his arms around him.

"Good morning," he said softly. Yugi grinned at him and planted a kiss on his forehead.

"If it even is morning," Yugi said. Yami chuckled, then saw that Yugi was holding Yami's engraved knife.

"I remember this," Yugi said. "You used it to cut the ropes the first night we met."

Yami only nodded. Yugi turned the blade around in his hands, then smiled to himself.

"What's funny?" Yami asked.

Yugi blushed slightly. "It… it seems so silly now that I was so afraid of you when we first met. When I saw you come out of the woods toward me, I thought for sure that I was going to die."

Yugi's smile faded a bit. "I remember thinking to myself that maybe you would kill me quickly and… and that it might save me from having to face my father again."

Yami wasn't sure what to say. He was relieved when Yugi smiled again.

"Of course, I was completely off, except for the part about not having to face my father again."

Yami smiled back at Yugi and squeezed him tightly. He leaned in close and said softly in Yugi's ear, "He'll never hurt you again, Yugi. I promise."

Yugi gave Yami a chaste kiss in thanks and went back to inspecting the knife that he still held in his hands.

"Where did you get this, Atemu?" The use of his old name surprised Yami for a moment, but he supposed that he should start thinking of himself as Atemu rather than what the Sennen Guild called him. "Was it with the stuff that came from your mother's house?" Yugi went on.

Atemu blinked, then frowned as he tried to remember. He knew that he had had that knife a long time… But, he remembered having it while he was with his father. Did he get it from his father? No, that didn't seem right…

"Atemu?" Yugi asked. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm just thinking," Atemu replied. Maybe he had gotten it from his mother…Then, just as that thought passed through his head, the memory came to him.

"My mother gave it to me when I turned twelve, just a few months after my father came to find us for the first time. She said that it had belonged to her father, and that he had given it to her to pass it on to her child."

He ran his finger along the flat of the blade. "The symbols engraved on it translate to "Bring luck and protection to the wielder of this blade". My mother gave it to me to protect myself with. For some reason, my father never took it away from me, and I didn't put it away in the attic with the rest of the items from my old life. I guess I must have pushed the memories associated with the knife out of my mind until it didn't remind me of my past anymore."

Atemu touched the knife's handle. He smiled sadly. "So many things that I'd forgotten…" he murmured. "So many things… I let them all slip away from me…"

Yugi put the knife down on the table near the bed and put his arms around Yami. "It's all right, Yami. You remember them now, and that's what matters."

Yami rested his head on Yugi's shoulder. "Yeah…"

There were several moments of silence, the two of them simply enjoying their embrace. Then, Yugi suddenly sat up and cried, "That's it!" Yami only grumbled; Yugi's shoulder had been quite comfortable.

"What's it?" Yami asked.

"I remember where I've seen the name Hikaru Hana before!" Yugi exclaimed. Yami sat up just as quickly as Yugi had.

"You've what? Her name? Where?"

"On a gravestone, in the cemetery by my town. The cemetery is really, really old and there are some stones in there that are from hundreds of years ago. I went there with my father for the funeral of one of his friends and I wandered out a ways, looking at the gravestones, and I saw her name on one of them!"

Yami and Yugi stared at each other for several moments, then a tear coursed down Yami's face. Yugi gently wiped it away, but more and more came until Yami was sobbing into Yugi's chest. Yugi put his arms around Yami, waiting patiently until the storm passed.

Yami eventually calmed down and the two of them simply sat there for a few moments, Yugi holding Yami in his arms. After a while, Yami slowly sat up again.

"Sorry…" he said, ashamed of his outburst.

"It's all right," Yugi said, holding one of Yami's hands between his own and rubbing it gently.

"Do you… remember where the grave is?" Yami asked.

Yugi nodded. "I have a pretty good idea."

Yami nodded absently, seeming lost in thought. Yugi laid his head on Yami's shoulder and brushed his lips against Yami's neck affectionately.

"Is it day right now?" Yugi asked.

Yami's eyes grew distant for a moment. "It's about mid-afternoon," he said.

"Tonight, then?"

Yami put his arm around Yugi's waist and squeezed him briefly. "Yes," he said. "Tonight."

A/N: Hey! They finally get to go out of the house again! Astounding, isn't it? I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible when I get back from Europe (egad, I can't believe how long this story is getting; it might be the longest fic I've ever written). Please review!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Hey, look! Another chapter! How spiffing. Please excuse all the angst, for there is much angst in this chapter. But, if you like angst, well, you'll be quite happy. Anyway… I might end up going back and forth between updating this and my new story, Beneath the Surface. I haven't yet figured out which one is my top priority. I suppose I should finish this one first… Oh, let's just go on to the next chapter.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 10

Yugi shivered and wrapped himself up tighter in his cloak as the wintry night breeze whistled through the garden. He was suddenly glad that he had managed to find a warm dress with long sleeves that also had a short enough skirt that it wouldn't get caught on the underbrush as they walked through the graveyard.

He frowned, trying to remember the location of the grave that he and Atemu would be looking for that night. He smiled slightly to himself for a moment, realizing that thinking of Yami as Atemu was becoming a habit, then went back to thinking about the cemetery. He knew that their destination was in a much older section, an area shaded with massive trees and overgrown weeds that no one ever visited. It seemed so sad to Yugi; the gravestones had been standing there through the decades, bearing the names of those who lie beneath them, but now there was no one left alive to remember the people behind the names.

Well, except for one person.

Atemu appeared next to Yugi rather suddenly, but Yugi was so used to it by then that it didn't startle him anymore. They stood in front of the house looking out over the shadowed gardens for several moments.

"Shall we go?" Yugi finally asked. Atemu only nodded. Yugi took Atemu's hand, rubbing it reassuringly, and they walked down the path from the house to the gate.

"Can you transport us to the graveyard?" Yugi asked.

"No," Atemu said. "I can't transport anywhere outside of the house."

Yugi frowned. "Why is that? I would think that you'd be able to transport anywhere. Is your magic limited to this house?"

Atemu's brow creased in thought. "No… I think I've lived in this house for so long that my magic has spread into it and become part of it. I'm connected to it in such a way that, when I'm inside it, I'm truly a part of it, and I can move about the rooms as I wish regardless of distance boundaries."

Yugi nodded. That sort of made sense…

"But, when I'm outside the house, I don't have the same connection with the world around me and cannot transport myself anywhere like I do in the house. Thus, we must walk."

Atemu smiled as he finished his explanation. Yugi smiled back, glad that Atemu seemed so relaxed. The gate opened of its own accord and the two pulled their hoods over their heads and stepped out into the dark forest.

It had been so long since Yugi had been outside of the house and its surrounding garden that it felt very odd and rather frightening to be in unfamiliar territory. Atemu seemed to sense Yugi's uneasiness and squeezed his hand briefly.

They had been walking for about ten minutes when they reached the crest of a hill. Off in the distance, they could see the lighted windows and darkened rooftops of the town. A vague memory of a time before Yugi had been in his life flitted through Atemu's mind and then was gone. They went down the other side of the hill and, after a few more minutes of walking, came to a clearing. The two of them stopped for a moment, letting memory take hold of them.

"Do you remember this place, Atemu?" Yugi asked.

Atemu looked around, then quietly said, "Yes."

Yugi could see the tree that the boys from the town had tied him to, and he remembered how frightened he had been of Atemu when he had first seen him. But oh, how glad he was now that he had met Atemu…

"We'd better keep going," Atemu said. Yugi nodded. The town wasn't much farther from there. Slowly, lights appeared through the trees and became brighter and brighter as Yugi and Atemu walked along. The trees began to thin out and the dark outlines of houses were visible. Their destination, however, was not the town, and they turned away from the town to the cemetery that lay on its outskirts.

Yugi glanced at the familiar houses and streets as they passed them by under the cover of the night trees. He could see the small wooden shacks of the farmers that were close to the outskirts so they could travel to the fields each day. Beyond that were the homes of the artisans, the blacksmiths and carpenters and clockmakers. Their shops were in the bustling town square, the center of the little village. The square was home to the schoolhouse and the town hall and the courthouse and the jail, as well as the houses of the rich. Except, Yugi thought suddenly, for his father's house. It, for some reason, had been built slightly outside of the town. Yugi felt his palms become clammy as he realized that they would be going past his father's house to get the graveyard.

Just as this thought passed through Yugi's mind, he could see the house looming just beyond the trees. His eyes focused in on a little window, high in a corner of the attic, a little window that had bars on it.

Yugi tore his eyes away and groped for Atemu's hand. Atemu stopped and looked at Yugi with concern. He glanced up at the dark house, then realization dawned on him.

"Is this your father's house?" he asked. Yugi only nodded. Atemu put an arm around Yugi and determinedly led him away from the house and towards the cemetery. Yugi took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. He couldn't let this get to him; he needed to be there for Atemu.

The lights of the town became dim behind them as they saw the rusty iron fence of the graveyard. The fence was very old and unkempt, so it was easy to find a place where part of it had fallen over and never been repaired.

Yugi had never been in the graveyard at night, and he had to admit that it was rather spooky. The bare tree branches above cast eerie moonlit shadows on the leering gravestones. Every so often a cold breeze would dance through the branches and the shadows would dance in return, giving the stones the illusion of movement. Yugi shivered and was suddenly very grateful that he wasn't there by himself.

"Which way do we go?" Atemu asked quietly. Yugi bit his lip; to be honest, he really wasn't sure. Everything looked so different at night, and he hadn't been to the graveyard in several years. Yugi kneeled down by one of the graves and squinted to see the date on it.

"Well, this one is fairly recent, so we need to go farther back," he said, pointing away from the town. They walked, it seemed, for a very long time, going farther and farther back into history. They passed by generation after generation, century after century, of those that had been born, lived, and died without the world giving them much notice.

Finally, Yugi saw something familiar. There was a gnarled tree stump sitting innocently among the stones. He remembered that Hikaru's stone had been just beyond it.

"There," Yugi said, pointing. "Just behind that stump."  
Suddenly feeling a sense of urgency, the two hurried over to the stump. There, just a few feet beyond it, was a small, plain stone sitting off by itself. Yugi kneeled down next to it and squinted to see the engraving, which was the only thing visible amongst overgrown weeds that covered the grave. Indeed, the stone said Hikaru Hana, but not much else except for the date of her death.

"This is it," Yugi said. He looked up at Atemu but couldn't make out his face in the darkness. Atemu also kneeled down next to the grave. He reached out a hand and traced the letters of his mother's name. There were several moments of silence, then Atemu took a deep breath.

"I missed you…" he said softly. "I tried to get back to you, I really did, but…"

Atemu had to stop for a moment, his voice thick with grief. He reached under his cloak and took out a small bag, which he opened and reached inside. When his hand reappeared it was holding a long chain, and on the end was a plain gold ring.

"I know that he didn't keep his promise to you," Atemu said. "I know that he said he would come back and that he wanted nothing more than to see you again. He came back, but he came back wanting power."

Atemu looked down at the ring in his hand, smiling sadly. "I've come back to you, mother," Atemu said, and he laid the ring and chain down on top of the grave. "And I want nothing more than to see you again."

Yugi's eyes widened as the ring and chain melted into the ground, never to be parted from her again. Atemu then concealed his face with his hood, bowed his head, and remained that way for a long time. Yugi quietly sat staring at the gravestone.

He saw that the date of Hikaru's death was Sept. 18, 1066. The current year was 1742. That meant that Atemu was at least seven hundred years old. It wasn't any wonder that Yami had let his memories go; they were only a reminder of what he had lost and what he could never have again. He would never have been able to escape the pain any other way.

Eventually, Atemu lifted his head and looked at Yugi. Yugi looked back at him with a smile. Atemu mustered a slight smile, then looked back at the gravestone. Yugi put a hand on Atemu's shoulder and said, "Let's go home."

Just then, they heard voices and footsteps from behind. The two looked at each other with wide eyes, then sprang to their feet and ran. The voices kept coming closer and Atemu and Yugi ducked behind a large tree that loomed over the graveyard. The voices came nearer and Yugi could see lamplight spilling across the ground.

"I tell you, I heard voices out here!" one voice was saying. "And I saw some shapes movin', too!"

"Well, I sure don't see anythin'. I didn't hear nuthin', either." The other voice sounded skeptical.

"I tell you, I saw two people runnin' around out here!" the first voice insisted.

"First they were just shapes, now they're people. Make up your mind, will you?"

"I tell you, they were people! One of 'em is probably that monster from the forest! He's come to eat the dead right out of their graves!"

Yugi looked over at Atemu in time to see him roll his eyes.

"All right, so if one's the monster then who's the other one?"

"Probably that girl that got lost in the forest a couple months ago!"

Yugi froze. He was sure that all the townspeople would've thought him long dead by now.

"You know," the first voice went on, "the rumor is that the girl was a witch and that she went out to find the monster and become his accomplice. And now, they roam the forest together, searching for victims!"

Now it was Yugi's turn to roll his eyes.

"Well, monster or witch or whatever, I don't see anyone 'round here. Next time you're gonna wake me up in the middle of the night, make sure you got some proof first."

The footsteps faded off into the distance and the lamplight disappeared. Yugi peered around the tree trunk to make sure that they were gone, then the two of them stood and made for a hole in the fence as quickly as they could.

"Hmph. Witch, my ass. Where do they get these crazy ideas?" Yugi vented indignantly as soon as they were safely amongst the trees again. Atemu snickered softly.

"You think that's funny, do you?"

"Well," Atemu said, "first of all, I believe that's the first time I've ever heard you curse, and second of all you now know how I feel about all the stories they make up about me. I mean, at least you're not a hairy, horrifying monster."

"Oh, don't be silly, Atemu," Yugi said. "You're not hairy at all."

Atemu glanced at Yugi sidelong. "Watch it, witch girl."

"Or you'll what? Roast me and eat me?"

Atemu suddenly grabbed Yugi and pinned him against a tree, their faces only inches apart. Yugi looked up at Atemu, quite startled.

"That does sound quite tempting…" Atemu said, running his tongue down Yugi's neck.

Yugi giggled. "Let's at least get back to the house first," he said, then yelped as Atemu swept Yugi up into his arms. The next thing Yugi knew, they were gliding along across the ground. The forest around them passed by in a blur, and within a moment Yugi could see the house looming before them.

Atemu, however, was not slowing down. They were still gliding along at top speed towards the iron fence.

"Uh… Atemu…" Yugi said nervously. They were almost to the fence; they wouldn't be able to stop in time.

"Atemu!" Yugi hid his face in Atemu's chest, and then there was a sudden rush of wind. Yugi looked down to see the iron fence below them and realized rather quickly that they were at least twenty feet in the air. Yugi stared in amazement as they passed over the fence and into the gardens, Atemu landing softly on the partially-frozen turf. He gently set Yugi down on his feet

"How did you do that?" Yugi asked in amazement.

"Teleporting is not my only skill," Atemu said. "I can move very quickly if I want to, though I haven't leapt that high in a long time."

"Well, why didn't you just do that when we were going to the graveyard?" Yugi asked.

Atemu shrugged. "We needed to sneak quietly into the graveyard; moving like that tends to make a bit too much noise. But, now that we're back at the house…"

Atemu took Yugi's hand and they were immediately in Yugi's bedroom (which had quickly become "their" bedroom). It was dark for a moment, but all Atemu had to do was snap his fingers and the many candles were magically lit. Yugi tossed his cloak onto a nearby chair, kicked off his shoes and started unlacing the back of the dress. He wasn't overly surprised when Atemu started helping him.

Yugi made soft, appreciative sounds as Atemu unlaced the dress and kissed his way down Yugi's back at the same time. When all the laces were undone, Atemu gently pushed the dress down off Yugi's shoulders Yugi let the sleeves slide down off his arms. However, the room was not very warm and Yugi started shivering as the dress cascaded to the floor in a little pool around him.

"Cold?" Atemu asked. Yugi nodded, and Atemu led Yugi over to the bed and wrapped him up in thick blankets. Yugi sighed as the covers became warm from his body heat, then he noticed that Atemu hadn't joined him. He poked a finger out from under the blankets and seductively curled it towards himself several times, gesturing for Atemu to get into bed with him. But, Atemu seemed oddly reluctant.

"What's wrong, Atemu?" Yugi asked.

"You… you were already cold, and I… I wouldn't be helping that very much," Atemu muttered.

Yugi chuckled. "Atemu, just get into bed. You don't have to feel guilty about it, and besides, you'll warm up in less than a minute."

Atemu smiled gratefully, undressed and snuggled under the covers next to Yugi. Atemu's skin was frigid, as it usually was, and Yugi went through his nightly ritual of rubbing warmth into Atemu's body. Slowly, Atemu's skin would absorb the heat and Atemu would finally relax. After that, he would either become sleepy or very aroused. Tonight seemed to be a sleepy night, and with good reason. The emotion evoked by seeing his mother's grave had undoubtedly drained his energy.

Atemu looked over at Yugi through half-lidded eyes, then he scooted in closer and brushed his lips against Yugi's.

"Thank you…" he murmured, then laid his head down on the pillow and instantly fell asleep. Yugi wasn't sure if the thank you was for the warmth or for accompanying Atemu to the graveyard. He decided that it would cover both.

Yugi yawned, finding that the warmth was also making him sleepy. He curled up next to Atemu and happily surrendered to sleep.

A/N: Yay, I finished it! And, with the issues of Atemu/ Yami's past finally resolved, the heroes of our story seem to be ready for the happily-ever-after schtick. But, the innocent conversation between the two keepers of the cemetery may be a sign of something far more sinister. . . Please review!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hey, another update! So, yeah, I got distracted from this for a little while because I was reading through some of my older stories that I'd posted, and I thought to myself, "Wow, some of this is really crappy." So, I went on a huge editing kick until I'd "fixed" The Love of an Angel and Come Save Me. I'm still working on Little Angel because that one is getting some major renovation. But, I finally got back on track and finished this chapter. Enjoy!

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 11

"… so then my uncle came in so drunk he could barely stand and wearing the bodice of the dress my mother had just made. He kneeled down in front of my aunt and started proclaiming his undying loyalty as a knight of the king."

Yugi laughed aloud at the hilarious image that sprang to mind. "And what did your aunt do?" he asked.

Atemu chuckled. "Well, she stared at him for a moment, then grabbed a spatula and chased him out of the house shouting at him to not come back until he was sober."

Yugi leaned back against the couch the two of them were sitting on. "Wow. I thought my relatives were crazy."

Atemu shrugged. "I think everyone's relatives are crazy, some are just more apparent than others." Yugi laughed again and put his head on Atemu's shoulder. Atemu began stroking Yugi's long hair, which he hadn't bothered to braid that morning.

Yugi smiled to himself; he was glad that Atemu was finally remembering happier things about his mother, things about his life before the curse. He seemed much more relaxed than before; he was quicker to smile and to laugh, and enjoyed telling funny stories about the escapades of his aunt and uncle. He still would look off into space with a sad, wistful look occasionally, even though it was a less common occurrence than it used to be. Yugi idly wondered what Atemu would have been like if the curse had never been cast, but he quickly abandoned the thought. It would be like wondering what he would have been like if his mother was still alive.

"Atemu?" Yugi asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Hmm?"

"Do you know if there's a way to break the curse?"

The two of them stared at each other for several moments until Atemu shook his head. "I looked for a long time," he said, "but there was hardly any information about nightwalkers at all, let alone how to break the curse."

His brow creased. "I think, though…" he stood and went to the bookshelf, searching through its dusty contents. Yugi followed him and looked over his shoulder.

"What are you looking for?"

"There's a book," Atemu said, turning around and looking about the library with a frown. "I can't remember what it's called… Was it Mythical Creatures? Myth and Curses? No… Um, Magic and Myth? I know it had the word myth in it…"

"Magic, Curses and Mythical Creatures?" Yugi said.

"That's it!" Atemu said, snapping his fingers. "Wait, how did you know that?"

Yugi held up a book that he had found stuffed into the very back of the shelf. The faded gold lettering on the front tiredly proclaimed Magic, Curses and Mythical Creatures. Yugi opened the book to the contents listing and scanned through it while Atemu peered over his shoulder.

"Let's see… Naiad, Nemean Lion, Nereid… Nymph… whoops, too far… um… aha! Nightwalker!"

Yugi quickly flipped through the pages until he found the right one, but was disappointed to see that the section about nightwalkers was quite brief. He skimmed through the description, as most of it was stuff that he already knew. Nightwalkers were cursed, could not go out in sunlight, immortal, have no body heat, so on and so forth…

Finally Yugi came to the end of the section. He felt his heart skip a beat as he dared to hope that, maybe, there was a way to break the curse that tortured Atemu so, but instead the passage simply said, "The only way that the curse may be done away with is to expose its vessel to sunlight, which is the curse's only weakness. However, the destruction of the curse also results in the death of the vessel if the curse has been present for more than twenty years. Even if the curse is destroyed within this time frame the vessel is still at risk. In the few cases of nightwalkers that have been recorded, many of the nightwalkers willingly walked into sunlight to rid themselves of the curse despite the consequences."

Yugi stared down at the words on the page, wishing that they said something different. There had to be some other way to break it, some way that the curse could be destroyed and Atemu could have the life that he'd never gotten a chance to live…

"I knew there was a reason that I hid that book," Atemu said with a sigh. "I remember finding this and, not wanting to face the truth, I hid it and eventually let myself forget what I had read."

He took the book from Yugi's hands and put it back on the shelf, then turned to see that Yugi was staring down at the floor dejectedly.

"Now, now, little one…" he said, putting his arms around the smaller boy. "Don't be sad. I don't want you to be unhappy because of me."

Yugi shook his head. "I just… I thought that, maybe there would be a way to…"

Atemu put a finger to Yugi's lips. "But there isn't, Yugi. There's no way to break the curse." Yugi looked down at the floor again and Atemu could see unshed glimmering in his eyes. He hugged Yugi tighter.

"Yugi…" he said softly. "I would like for the curse to be broken, too, but… please know that you have given me enough happiness in these past weeks to make up for all the lonely years of my life."

Yugi looked up into Atemu's warm crimson eyes. "And that is just as good," Atemu said.

* * *

Mai grumbled to herself as she saw the hideously long line in front of the bakery.

/I should just bake the bread myself/

With a sigh she pulled her cloak tightly around herself against the cold wind and took a place in line amongst the other servants of the town's rich inhabitants who were waiting to buy bread. As she stood there, her thoughts wandered into the past.

Mai wasn't from the little town that she now lived in. She was an orphan, but had been adopted by a very well-to-do family and grew up in the rich, bustling city. When her foster parents passed on she had received a sizeable inheritance and had been much too strong-headed to submit herself to another man. She had been quite content with her luxurious and carefree lifestyle until her inheritance ran out and she couldn't afford to live in the city anymore. Determined to get her upper-class status back, Mai had swallowed her pride and traveled to this little town. She took the only job she could get, which was working as a maid for a wealthy man and his pregnant wife.

She had only been working for them for a couple months when the wife went into labor. The delivery was disastrous; the child had barely lived and the mother was on the verge of death. Knowing that she was going to die, the mother begged Mai to take care of her child and Mai had promised her that she would. She had also requested that her son be named Yugi.

Mai had fulfilled the promise as best she could despite the apparent insanity of the father. She had been appalled that the father began forcing his son to act as his daughter, but, as a servant, Mai had no authority to tell a wealthy landowner how to raise his children. She could not speak against the beatings or the long periods of Yugi being locked in his room, but she still tried to make life easier for Yugi. She always brought him books when he was locked in and fixed all his favorite foods, provided that his father didn't find out. She taught Yugi how to play the piano and, as often as she could, would let him play outside, an activity that he rarely got to enjoy.

But, despite her best efforts, Mai still had to watch Yugi grow up lonely and confused. She had grown fond of the boy over time and it pained her to see him suffer. Yugi was sweet, intelligent and completely undeserving of the prison he had been born into. Though she had never been particularly religious, Mai began to pray each night that Yugi would someday be freed from his father and somehow find happiness.

Thus, when Yugi had disappeared, Mai secretly hoped that he had run away to a better life away from his father. It seemed improbable to her that Yugi had run away, as he was rarely so rash, but it was not impossible. However, she also suspected that Yugi's disappearance may have been caused by the boys that always picked on him at school. She wouldn't put it past them to kidnap Yugi, drag him to the forest and leave him there. She had no grounds to accuse them on, of course, but if that was the case, Mai could only hope that Yugi would make it to another village before winter or he would not survive.

Fearing that Yugi was cold, hungry and lost in the forest, Mai had ventured out into the trees during the night to search for him. But, there had been no trace of him, and as winter approached she was forced to accept the fact that Yugi was gone, dead or otherwise. And, even though she knew this as well as knowing that she had fulfilled her promise to Yugi's mother as best she could, she couldn't bring herself to leave. Something, maybe some stubborn hope that Yugi was still alive, kept her there despite the impossibility of the idea.

"What'll you have, miss?" a voice asked, jarring Mai from her thoughts. She had finally reached the bakery. She paid for her purchases and hurried out of the market, eager to get back inside the warm house.

As she left the market she could see a small, wiry man standing up on a crate and addressing a rather sizeable crowd. Mai had seen him several times before. He was a pompous, self-proclaimed expert on witchcraft that had been spreading crazy ideas about Yugi being a witch. He insisted that the "witch" had obviously gone off into the forest so that she could make a pact with the monster that lived out there which, according to him, was often done so that witches could enhance their powers.

The villagers had bought the whole story and it had spread quickly through the town. Mai had ignored the rumors at first; she didn't believe in witchcraft or the monster, and of course knew that Yugi wasn't a witch. The rumors persisted, though, and Yugi's father most certainly wasn't helping to stop them. For a few weeks he had been aggrieved of his son's disappearance, but when the witchcraft rumors started flying he began admitting in public that his "daughter" was really a witch and had held their household in a grip of terror ever since she had been born. This, Mai knew, was just as ridiculous as the rumors that the wiry man had been spouting.

However, the rumors had caught her attention when people began talking about a witch hunt. The wiry man had apparently been telling people that if the witch was caught and burned, the monster would also die because of the pact that had been made between them. This had triggered a great deal of talk about going into the forest and capturing the witch when spring came.

Of course, Mai knew that this was all utter nonsense. But, she thought to herself as she came closer to the house, there was still reason to worry. If Yugi was somehow still alive in the forest when spring came, then there would be nothing that Mai could do to stop the villagers from killing him. Mai silently prayed that Yugi was either far away from the village or already dead, because the villagers would have no mercy on him if he was found.

A/N: Oh how ominous. I'm finally, FINALLY, getting towards finishing this story. I can't believe I started this almost a year and a half ago and I'm still not done. Oh, well, as long as I finish it eventually. So, yeah, review please!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: And yet another chapter! Wow, that was fast. Well, I already had half of this written and I knew what I needed to write for the rest, so it didn't take much effort to pull it together. Oh, and something else that I've been meaning to do (and should have done last chapter) is address the parallels to Beauty and the Beast that some people have pointed out to me. For the record, that wasn't my intention when I started out. I did notice the similarities after I got through a few chapters, but it wasn't my original inspiration. Besides, I think the parallels kind of went out the window when they screwed each other silly. But anyways! On to the next chapter.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 12

Yugi shaded his eyes against the sun as he looked over the vast reaches of the forest. Far off in the distance he could see the many towns and villages that went about their daily lives, unaware that he was watching. In the opposite direction, ominous mountains stood beneath a cloudy haze, their snow-capped points barely visible. The wind was still cold despite the coming spring, so Yugi had a thick cloak wrapped around him.

Yugi was standing on one of the high balconies of the house in the late afternoon, waiting for Atemu to wake up. Both of them were now in the routine of sleeping during the day and being awake at night, but there were still times when Yugi wanted to go outside when the sun was out. He would often watch the sunrise before going to bed, and get up early enough to see the sunset. It always saddened him that Yami could not see these things; his only light consisted of dim candles and the moon's watery rays. During the night, though, Yugi would often describe the sunsets and sunrises and the way the mountains looked in the daytime, and that seemed to make Atemu happy. Sometimes it was hard to tell what Atemu was feeling, but Yugi was becoming more adept at translating Yami's facial expressions and body language.

But today, Yugi wasn't up because he wanted to see the sun. He was up because he couldn't sleep. In the past week or so, Yugi had been having strange and very frightening dreams. He hadn't experienced anything like them since the panic attack he'd had when Atemu had locked him in his room as punishment for going into the east turret, but that was now months ago.

In the dream, Yugi was walking down a hallway in the house trying to find Atemu. The kegawa were bouncing along down the hallway with him. At the end of the hallway there was a door, and Yugi would open it and go inside. At first the room was completely dark. Yugi would call out Atemu's name, and from nowhere a candle was suddenly lit in his hand. He would look around the room and see that it was his old room from his father's house. As soon as he realized where he was, the door slammed behind him. The kegawa had disappeared. Yugi turned and ran to the door, trying to open it, but to no avail. He would scream and cry and pound on the door, begging for Atemu to let him out, but no one was there to help him.

He would sink down onto the floor and, turning to look at the room, would see that it was growing progressively smaller. He would then see that the window was open. Yugi would try to get to it, but his legs were suddenly incredibly heavy and he could barely stand. He would finally get to the window, only to find that there were bars on it. Beyond the bars, he saw his father, except it wasn't his father. It was a heavyset jail keeper with his father's face, a cruel smile twisting his features. In his hand was a set of keys, and he would dangle them in front of Yugi's face. Yugi would try to reach for them, only to have the jail keeper pull them away. Meanwhile, the room around him grew smaller and smaller until he barely fit inside of it and his arm would no longer fit through the bars on the window. The jail keeper would laugh and laugh with his father's mouth until Yugi woke up, sweating and shaking, with the jangling of keys still ringing in his ears.

Atemu had been concerned, of course, but Yugi had continued to dismiss it as just a bad dream. Atemu hadn't said anything yet, but Yugi figured that he knew that it was more than just a bad dream spawned from baseless fear. The trauma of his life with his father was coming back to haunt him and Yugi didn't know what to do about it. He thought that he had finally gotten away from those fears; he felt safe in the house, with Atemu and with the kegawa, but somehow he was still afraid that it would all be taken away and that he would end up trapped in his father's house again.

Yugi hugged himself, pulling his cloak tighter around his body. He had tried so hard to tell himself that his fears had no legitimate ground to stand on, that Atemu had promised to protect him and that he was very capable of doing so.

And yet…

Shaking his head, Yugi turned to go back inside, suddenly filled with a desire to be near Atemu. It hadn't yet failed to make him feel better.

* * *

Atemu woke to find that Yugi was not with him. He sat up, immediately searching the house with his mind and found that Yugi was coming back towards the bedroom. A few moments later, Yugi opened the door. He was wearing a cloak and his cheeks were flushed from cold, so Atemu guessed that he had been outside. Yugi shed his cloak and, without a word, walked over to Atemu and put his arms around him, burying his face in Atemu's chest.

Putting his arms around Yugi, Atemu began to rock him gently and whisper words of love in his ear. His eyes saddened as he realized that Yugi was shaking.

"You had the dream again," he said. Yugi just nodded without looking up. Eventually Atemu grasped Yugi's chin and forced him to meet his eyes.

"Yugi," he said gently, "I promised you that I would protect you and I intend to keep that promise. You're safe here; I won't let anyone hurt you."

Yugi nodded again. "I know… I don't know why I'm so afraid, why I'm having these dreams. I just… I don't want to be taken away from you."

"No one's going to take you away, Yugi," Atemu said as he stroked his lover's cheek. "You don't have to be afraid."

With a sigh Yugi laid his head on Atemu's shoulder. He knew that what Atemu had just said was true, but he still couldn't shake off the fear that lingered in the back of his mind. However, being with Atemu did stem the fear a bit, making it easier to ignore. Forcing a smile onto his face, Yugi looked up at Atemu.

"Thank you…" he murmured. Atemu smiled back and leaned in for a kiss.

* * *

_Yugi ran for the window and stuck his arm through the bars, trying in vain to reach the keys that were dangling just out of reach. The jailer was laughing cruelly and Yugi could feel the room becoming smaller and smaller around him. He was trapped…_

Yugi sat up suddenly, sweating and shaking, and stared around at the bedroom for several moments. Reassured that he was still in Atemu's house, Yugi relaxed a bit. He glanced beside him to see Atemu fast asleep. The nightwalker had tried so hard the night before to make Yugi feel better, and Yugi certainly appreciated his efforts, but the dreams still came and the fear was still present.

Knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, Yugi got out of bed and dressed himself. He grabbed his cloak and left the room, ignoring the sleepy eyes of the kegawa as they watched him curiously. Yugi made his way downstairs and outside; maybe walking around in the garden a bit would make him feel better.

Seeing the garden did indeed raise his spirits. The sun was shining cheerily and the wild ferns and flowers were beginning to poke up out of the ground in anticipation of spring. It certainly had been getting warmer, though the wind was still chilly. Smiling to himself, Yugi looked up at a tree with buds covering its branches to see a bluebird perched there, swaying slightly in the wind.

Suddenly, though, the bird startled and took off. Yugi frowned; he was quite sure that he hadn't made enough noise to frighten it. Then, Yugi heard an odd scraping sound. He whirled around and behind him was a large, tangled bush that partially obscured the iron fence around the garden. Figuring that the sound had come from that direction, Yugi cautiously peered around the bush. It seemed that the fence behind the bush had rotted away, as there was a sizeable hole in the bars. In fact, it was big enough for a person to squeeze through.

Yugi froze. Now that he was close enough he could see that the bars hadn't rotted away; they had been sawed off.

That was all the warning Yugi had before he was grabbed from behind and a gag was stuffed in his mouth. He panicked, struggling wildly against his assailant, but suddenly there were more of them outside of the fence. He faintly recognized some of them as villagers. The man behind him forced him towards the hole and he was pulled through the fence. Yugi tried to grab hold of one of the bars but his arms were yanked behind his back and secured with rope.

Yugi took a last look up at the house before he was pulled away by the villagers toward the forest. His heart sank; even if Atemu knew that he had been captured, what could Atemu do? It was the middle of the day, and the sun was shining brightly as Yugi was pulled back to the village by the witch hunters.

A/N: Once again, ominous! Mwahahahaha! Um, yeah, total cliffhanger. Hopefully I can get the next chapter up quickly so that I don't have to dodge any pointy projectiles from enraged reviewers. Oh, yeah, please review!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Holy #$, I have way too much time on my hands. As you can see, another chapter has emerged. I'm trying to get this thing done before school starts so that it doesn't end up taking another six months. That, and the motivation of several reviewers threatening pointy projectiles, made me crank this chapter out with ease and urgency. Now, for all of you that were waiting for the conclusion (ha, conclusion, yeah right…) to last time's cliffhanger, I hope you're not disappointed.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 13

Atemu sat up in bed to look sleepily around the room. Yugi was not next to him yet again. He had had the dream again, most likely, and had gone to look at the sun. Sighing, Atemu searched the house mentally.

Something was wrong. Atemu searched the house again and again, but he couldn't find Yugi.

He couldn't find Yugi.

Atemu jumped out of bed and transported to the library, but it was empty. He went to the dining room, to the main hall, to the attic, to all the other rooms in the house, his form flashing through them as he searched frantically for the human. He nearly transported himself outside before he remembered that it was day out. But, his search yielded nothing.

Atemu stopped teleporting around long enough to realize that he was shaking. Where was Yugi? He wouldn't have left, would he? Why would he leave, where would he go? Atemu felt a cold wetness on his cheek, but there were no warm fingers to wipe it away. The shaking intensified.

In a sudden fit of panic, Atemu teleported back to the bedroom. In a violent burst of mental energy the bed was flung across the room to smash into the wall. Suddenly he was in the library and tables and chair were flying about, knocking shelves of books to the dusty floor. The grandfather clock in the main hall came tumbling down, the dining table was overturned, the white sheets covering the furniture in the east turret danced about like lost ghosts. The entire house roared with Atemu's anguish as his sanity slipped away through his fingers like sand.

Eventually ending up in the main hall, his panic spent and his body weak with grief, Atemu sank to his knees with a sob. Oh, Gods, he was alone again… alone in the cold and the dark…

Then, through his pain Atemu could hear a faint squeaking. He slowly raised his head to see the kegawa bouncing around in front of him, squealing frantically. Atemu frowned; he could just make out what they were trying to tell him.

Yugi hadn't left… he had been captured…

And the world went red.

The floor beneath Atemu split and the crack spread up the stairs and the walls. The grandfather clock, sitting sideways on the floor where it had fallen, suddenly tolled the hour as it had not done in four hundred years. The kegawa shrank back in fear as Atemu rose from the floor, the house shrieking and twisting around him as his anger-fueled magic coursed through it. The grief turned to rage, Atemu screamed his frustration out at the uncaring ceiling with its sad gargoyle faces and faded chandeliers. Then, his energy spent once again, he collapsed to his knees.

For, though he knew where Yugi had been taken, he could do nothing. The sun shone happily down upon the land and would gladly sentence him to death should he step out into its light.

Atemu clenched his fists and, summoning all his strength and courage, stood and looked to the door. There were two choices. One would be to stay in the house, let Yugi be taken away and live on forever. The other, to risk almost certain death and see Yugi again for just a few moments.

It did not take him long to decide.

----------------

Yugi struggled vainly against the chains that held him to the wall of the cell, though he knew in the back of his mind that it wouldn't do him any good. And even if he did escape the chains, he would somehow have to get out of the cell, get past the jailers and then out of the town. With a sigh Yugi slumped against the wall, exhaustion and hopelessness taking their toll on him.

Without much of a trial, the town court had declared him to be a maniacal, incurable witch who must be burned as soon as possible in order to rid the town of both him and the "monster" in the forest. Something had been said about a pact between the two of them that would make the monster die when he did. Who had given them that idea, Yugi didn't know. They had barely let Yugi talk at all through the whole trial, so it had been impossible to even begin to protest the ridiculous charges.

Yugi had also seen his father in the back of the courthouse, but he had said nothing in his son's defense. In fact, when he was called on as a witness, he regaled the courtroom with made-up stories about the awful things that Yugi's "witchcraft" had plagued his house with. But, what really shocked Yugi was that he suspected that Yugi's mother's death had been caused by her son.

In that moment, Yugi finally understood his father's abuse. It had never been clear to him before what he had done to make his father hate him so, but now he knew. His father blamed him for his mother's death. At that point Yugi bowed his head and simply sat there for the rest of the trial.

Eventually the trial had ended in him being sentenced to be burned that evening and he was taken to the prison cell that he was currently in. His wrists were shackled to the wall so that he couldn't even hug himself against the damp cold.

Yugi's thoughts wandered to Atemu. Did he even know that Yugi was gone? Would he dare risk the deadly sunlight to come save him? Even if Atemu tried to wait for dusk Yugi would probably be dead by then, as the execution was scheduled for just before sunset. Despair welled up inside of Yugi as he searched for some form of hope, but he found none. After all that he had gone through, after finally finding a home and someone that truly loved him, he was going to be burned to death in front of a crowd of paranoia-crazed townsfolk.

Yugi's head snapped up as he heard footsteps, and suddenly two of the burly jailers appeared outside the cell. They came into the cell and unchained Yugi, then unceremoniously dragged him out of the jail and into the late evening sunlight. Looking up, Yugi could see the center of the square where bundles of dried grass and tree branches had been stacked on a hastily-built platform. In the center of the pile was a tall wooden stake, like in the ancient witch hunter stories that Yugi had heard when he was younger.

A knot of fear tightened painfully in Yugi's stomach and he struggled against the jailers in momentary panic. Nearly the entire town had gathered in the square, which hadn't been made for so many people all at once, so the two men had to push through the packed crowd to get to the designated point of Yugi's execution.

The noise of the crowd was overwhelming; only a few angry insults were distinguishable from the chaotic roar. They approached the wooden platform and Yugi's struggled even harder. He managed to kick one of the men in the stomach so that he doubled over and let go of Yugi, but the other jailer twisted his arm behind his back and forced him towards the stake.

Yugi was promptly tied to the stake amidst the bundles of sticks and grass. The jailers pulled the ropes so tight that it was difficult for Yugi to breathe. Then, an important-looking man that Yugi recognized as the town's chief representative stood on a corner of the platform and began a long-winded speech about the burdensome yet glorious duty of eradicating evil from the world.

Yugi didn't pay much attention. He watched the sunset, wishing that the sun would sink beneath the horizon faster. The closer it was to nightfall, the more likely it was that Atemu would be able to rescue him.

His eyes scanned the crowd, but he only saw angry and hateful faces until a familiar person caught his eye. Mai was shouting angrily, but unlike the rest of the crowd her anger wasn't directed at Yugi. Her cries were of protest and, although she wasn't really getting anywhere, Mai was trying to push through the crowd towards Yugi. Yugi almost laughed when he saw her sock a man almost twice her size in the nose when he wouldn't get out of her way.

But, Mai's efforts were in vain, Yugi realized, as the crowd's roar intensified. He turned his attention back to the long-winded councilman and Yugi saw a man dressed in black approach with a burning torch in one hand. Yugi's heart sank into his stomach. This was it. If Atemu didn't come now, then Yugi was doomed.

"…and our righteousness shall prevail over evil!" the councilman finally finished his speech. With that, the executioner set the torch to one of the stick bundles and the flames leapt up towards the sky and spread across the dry grass.

Yugi struggled in panic, feeling the heat of the fire on his skin as the flames crept closer. The smoke began to sting his eyes and coughing fits wracked his body. Looking out through the dark smoke he could faintly see Mai who had stopped struggling against the crowd and was watching in horror. Yugi tried to call out, not really knowing what he was going to say, but the smoke stole away his breath. The people's shouting became a faraway echo and his vision blurred into a mass of shapes and dim light. He gave one last desperate pull at his bonds, saw crimson eyes beckon to him, and then he tumbled into darkness.

----------------------

The crowd cheered as Yugi's form fell limp and a great column of smoke rose toward the twilight sky. Mai looked away as tears coursed down her face.

Suddenly, a cold wind rushed through the streets of the town. The crowd was thrown into chaos, and in only seconds the flames were extinguished. A stunned silence fell over the square. As quickly as the wind had come, a human-like shadow swept over the crowd to where Yugi lay lifeless. A knife cut the binding ropes. The shadow turned to face the crowd, the unconscious Yugi cradled in his arms. He raised his hand for a mere moment while the crowd still stared in shock.

Suddenly, the square erupted in screams. The boys that had tied Yugi up in the forest cried that there were monsters all around them. A girl that had always picked on Yugi at school screamed that there were rats chasing after her. Yugi's father stood staring for a few moments in silence, blinked, then fell to his knees and begged whatever heavenly deity would listen for mercy. And, for the next 100 days, every person in the town that had ever raised hand or thought against Yugi would see their worst fear every time they closed their eyes.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the shadow disappeared from the town along with Yugi as the sun sank beneath the horizon.

A/N: Well, that all seems pretty cut and dried, doesn't it? Atemu saved Yugi and all the baddies got theirs, so now it's time for the happily ever after. Or is it? Review, please!


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Wow, here we go again. No, the story is not over (Is that good or bad? I'm not sure), though I could have allowed it to end with the last chapter. But then, I might have gotten some pointy projectiles for that. But that would be nothing compared to what I'm going to get for this chapter. Oh, and thank you, thank you, thank you to the people who have reviewed. I love you and you all get virtual hugs from me. Despite the fact that my story has three thousand and something-or-other hits, only a select few of them have chosen to review. Thank you very much for taking the time to do so.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 14

Mai peeked out from her hiding place in the alleyway at the chaos in the town square. She was hiding because she knew that, eventually, someone would realize that she had been trying to stop the execution and somehow the whole incident would be pinned on her. Mai was brave, but she wasn't stupid, so she watched the wild square in safety.

The chief representative was still standing on the platform, shouting himself hoarse, but no one seemed to hear him. The town physician was helplessly trying to figure out what was wrong with the children that had suddenly started hallucinating and were screaming that monsters or rats or whatever they happened to fear were all around them. Yugi's father had disappeared, but why or to where Mai neither knew nor cared about.

She noticed that there were a few men in the corner of the square that were trying to organize a hunting party to find the witch again. Mai wasn't sure how successful they would be with the powers that the monster had demonstrated just minutes ago.

That brought Mai to another worry; why had the monster come for Yugi? Mai didn't believe the nonsense that had been circulated about the mystical pact between Yugi and the monster, but they did seem to have a connection. Was Yugi the monster's prisoner? Mai had thought that nothing could have been worse than being trapped under the abusive hand of Yugi's father, but what if Yugi was a slave to the powerful being that dwelled in the forest? Mai feared that Yugi was being dragged away to a fate worse than being burned to death.

As Mai saw it, there were two things that could happen. Either Yugi would be kept under the power of a potentially dangerous monster, or he would be captured again by the townspeople and meet a painful, fiery demise. Mai turned away from the square; she had promised his mother that she would take care of Yugi, and as long as Yugi was alive she was bound by that promise.

A few moments later, the alleyway was empty.

----------------------

Atemu moved as fast as he could, gliding over the ground as if he were simply a shadow, as he tried to put as much distance between them and the town as possible. Undoubtedly the townspeople would reorganize and come after them. However, the terrible pain burning at every nerve in his body forced him to slow and eventually stop. He knelt amongst a thick tangle of undergrowth, hoping that they would be hidden, and cradled Yugi's limp body against his chest as he listened intently for any pursuit. He sighed, detecting none, and laid Yugi on the ground.

"Yugi?" he said softly, touching the young human's cheek gingerly. Fear knotted itself in his throat; Yugi didn't seem to be breathing. Had he come too late? His thoughts, however, were banished as white hot pain lanced through his body, forcing him to the ground.

Then, Atemu heard a soft moan beside him and he lifted his head. Yugi brought a hand to his forehead, letting out another moan, and suddenly his body was wracked with a coughing fit. Atemu pulled himself close to the human, gently embracing his slender form. The coughing subsided, and Yugi looked up into the nightwalker's face.

"Atemu…" he said softly. Atemu smiled down at him, then inhaled sharply as another spasm of pain shot through his body.

"Atemu?" Yugi, alarmed, sat up and pulled Atemu close to him. The dark creature curled up into a ball, eyes shut tightly as he waited for the spasm to subside. Finally he relaxed, panting in exhaustion.

"Atemu, what's wrong?" Yugi asked in concern. Atemu managed to pull himself into a sitting position with Yugi's help, wincing as he did so.

"I left to find you before the sun set completely. I tried to keep to the shadows, but…" Atemu had to stop as another spasm crippled him momentarily.

"I couldn't let you die…" Atemu said softly as soon as he could speak again. "But… I think that it might be too late for me now…"

Yugi stared at Atemu in horror, then began to shake his head slowly.

"No…" he whispered. "No, Atemu, you can't leave!" Yugi threw his arms around Atemu, sobs escaping his lips. "You can't leave…" he hiccupped. "I love you…" He felt Atemu's embrace tighten.

"I'm sorry, Yugi…" Atemu's voice was becoming faint and he had to lean on Yugi to remain sitting up. Yugi slowly laid him down, tears falling from his amethyst eyes. Atemu reached up to brush some of the droplets away.

"Shh… Please don't cry for me, Yugi."

Yugi automatically took one of Atemu's hands, rubbing warmth into the cold skin. "Please don't leave me…" he said, hiccupping. "Don't leave me alone…" Atemu's squeezed Yugi's hand weakly.

"I wish I had a choice," he whispered. Yugi laid a gentle kiss on Atemu's lips, his face now streaked with tears. Atemu smiled at the contact, but then his face contorted in pain as another spasm struck.

Yugi felt more tears sting in his eyes. Atemu didn't deserve to die this way.

"Yugi," Atemu said, his voice barely audible, yet Yugi was still able to detect a hint of alarm. "Don't leave me," he whispered.

"I'm not going to leave," Yugi said, nearly choking on the lump in his throat. He took Atemu's hands into his own and the nightwalker squeezed them as tightly as he could.

"I love you, Yugi."

Yugi sobbed. "I love you, too."

Atemu smiled faintly, then his eyes went out of focus and his breathing began to slow. His grip on Yugi's hands tightened suddenly as he inhaled sharply, and then the breath was let out in a deep sigh. The grip relaxed and went limp, and the nightwalker was still. Far away in the forest, the sad forms of the kegawa faded away. The house, its support beam of dark magic suddenly gone, collapsed in on itself. Its windows and balconies spilled out over the new spring flowers and the walls and floors and gargoyle faces scattered into dust.

Yugi felt a sob well up in his throat. He gently closed Atemu's empty eyes, then collapsed on his lover's chest and cried.

A/N: Atemu has moved on, but will he find peace? Please review.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Yay! New chapter! I feel so spiffy for getting these last few chapters up so quickly. The pointy projectiles gave me plenty of motivation; that, and college is looming upon me, so I figured I ought to get this done while I still have time. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I love you all and send you virtual hugs.

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 15

It was warm. There was warmth and softness all around him. For a few moments he didn't wonder why, he simply enjoyed the feeling. The world was only the sound of wind and the smell of cinnamon and blissful warmth. Eventually, though, wakefulness tugged at his consciousness and he opened his eyes.

The room he was in was so familiar. He looked around at the wood floors, at the fireplace and the pillowed armchairs. And, on the other side of the fireplace there was a piano. Then, he heard a voice, such a familiar voice, softly humming an equally familiar tune.

Atemu roused himself from the bed he was lying on and went to the door of the little house. Outside there was a sea of green hills framed by forest. There were mountains off in the distance and he could hear the soft trickle of water from a nearby stream. The sky was a cheerful, cloudless blue, the sun shining happily down on the hills.

The sun…

In sudden panic Atemu stumbled backward to hit the wall, throwing an arm up as though to shield himself from the golden rays that were pouring in through the door and windows.

"Do not worry," the familiar voice said. "It cannot hurt you anymore."

Atemu stood where he was for a moment, frozen, then slowly stepped forward, out the door and into the sunlight. He had to shield his eyes, not used to the glaring brightness. In fact, it took him several moments to realize that there was no pain. Instead there was the sensation of warmth. His eyes eventually adjusting to the light, he simply stood there and soaked in the feeling of sunshine on his skin, something that he hadn't felt in centuries.

Then, sensing a presence, Atemu whirled around. And he could only stare. Deep violet eyes lit up with a smile in a face that was framed by crimson-black strands.

"Hello, Atemu," she said.

For several moments there was silence. There was only the sun, her and him staring at her. Then there was a sob. A little child, robbed of innocence, ran to his mother with tears in his eyes. The mother took the child into her arms, her gentle touch soothing away the grief and the fear. The mother and the child stayed like that for a long time while the sun warmed their backs and the breeze danced around them.

Eventually, Atemu raised his head and looked up into his mother's soft eyes. She smiled at him and held him tighter. Atemu relaxed into the embrace.

"Is this heaven?" he whispered.

"This is a part of it, yes," Hikaru said. "This is where I have waited for you; this is where many souls wait for those that they had to leave behind."

Those that they had to leave behind… Atemu gasped suddenly and pulled away from the embrace.

"Yugi!" he exclaimed as all the memories rushed back to him. He shook his head in dismay. "Oh, gods, Yugi…"

"Yes," Hikaru said sympathetically. "Yugi was the one that you had to leave behind."

Atemu's head snapped up. "Is he all right? Do you know what's happened to him?"

Hikaru's eyes became sad. "I am afraid that he will be in great danger soon. He is already in much pain from the grief over your passing, and he will not be able to escape the hunters from the village by himself. They will easily overtake him."

Atemu stared at his mother in horror, then shook his head. "No…" he fell to his knees, his legs suddenly unable to support him. "Please, no…"

"Atemu…" Hikaru murmured, kneeling beside him and putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. Atemu shook his head harder.

"I promised him…" he said, almost choking on the words. "I promised him that I'd protect him…" Atemu closed his eyes, tears of shame and grief escaping to trickle down his face. "But I failed him…"

"Atemu," Hikaru said again. She grasped Atemu's chin gently and raised his head up so that their eyes locked. "You did not fail him," she said intensely. "You sacrificed your own life to save his."

Atemu laughed bitterly. "Yes, for all the good that it did. He's still going to be captured and burned anyways; I just delayed it."

"Atemu," Hikaru said, this time sternly. Atemu fell silent immediately and Hikaru continued in a more gentle tone. "I was sent here, my son, because I have a message for you. You are being given a choice."

A choice? Atemu frowned in confusion.

"You can either come with me and move on into the next world…"

Atemu nearly cried out with joy at the thought. He had wanted so very badly to see his mother again, to be with her and enjoy her company. To finally travel with her to a land of peace, where no one could tear them apart again, seemed too good to be true.

"Or…" Hikaru went on and Atemu halted his thoughts to listen, "… you can go back."

Atemu blinked and Hikaru explained. "Your spirit will be allowed to re-enter your body and you will be given the chance to save Yugi."

Hikaru jumped slightly as her son suddenly threw his arms around her, hugging her tightly. Then he abruptly pulled away, staring at her with concern.

"But wait… The curse was broken, destroyed. I won't have any magic left to save Yugi."

Hikaru smiled. "Atemu, you've been a nightwalker for seven centuries. Your physical body has surely absorbed a great deal of magic from the curse, just as the house did. Just release the magic contained in your body and that will be enough for you to help Yugi."

Atemu smiled in relief and nodded, but Hikaru went on. "Now, there are two other things that you must know. The first is that, if you choose to go back, there is one condition: you must spend the rest of your human life protecting Yugi, as you promised him you would."

Atemu nodded vigorously. "And the second thing," Hikaru said, "Is something that I need you to know." She gently took Atemu's hands in hers. "At the end of your life in the physical world, Atemu, I will still be here waiting for you. Nothing can change that."

Hikaru kissed his forehead tenderly. "Now, what is your choice?"

Atemu stared at her for a moment, breathless. "I want to go back," he managed to say. Hikaru smiled.

"Very well."

She rose, pulling Atemu up off the ground with her, and led him away from the house towards the forest. When they reached the edge of the trees, she pointed to them and said, "Walk through the forest towards the mountains. This will eventually lead you back."

Hikaru hugged her son tightly and softly said in his ear, "And when you have saved Yugi, you will find a home that I have made for you."

Atemu pulled away from the embrace. "What do you mean?"

"You will see," Hikaru said with a grin.

Atemu smiled, deciding to take her word for it. He kissed her lightly on the cheek, then turned and disappeared into the trees.

--------------

Yugi eventually raised himself off of Atemu's lifeless body and into a sitting position, still sniffling. Atemu's pale face was relaxed, as if he were asleep. Yugi stroked his limp hand out of habit, the action triggering memories and bringing more tears to his eyes.

He knew that he shouldn't stay; the townspeople would be searching for him, but he couldn't bring himself to leave Atemu's body. And if he did leave, where would he go? The townspeople knew where the house was and would expect him to go there, so that wasn't an option. He wasn't even sure if the house still existed without Atemu's magic; the kegawa surely weren't there anymore. There were other towns, of course, but even if he could get to them he had no money and nowhere to stay. And, if news of the "witch" got to other towns, which it certainly would, then he wouldn't have a chance if he were caught.

The unshed tears overflowed and trickled down his cheeks. /I should let them find me/ he thought bitterly. /I don't have anything left to live for/

Yugi's head snapped up as he heard shouts and quick footsteps through the undergrowth. His heart skipped a beat. Even if he had nothing left to live for, burning to death wasn't really the way he wanted to go.

The shouts grew louder. Yugi, deciding Atemu wouldn't want him to just give up, pulled himself to his feet. He hid Atemu's body amongst the brush, not wanting the hunters to get their hands on it. He squeezed Atemu's hand one last time, then made his way as quickly and quietly as he could away from the town and into the night forest.

He could still hear the shouts and footsteps of the villagers. Yugi absently wondered how they had captured him in the first place, making so much noise. He leapt over a fallen log, pushed his way through some heavy vines, and stumbled through some undergrowth. Suddenly he froze.

"There she is!" the villager shouted as he spotted Yugi in the flickering light of his torch. Yugi turned in the opposite direction and ran. He didn't know where he was going, just as long as it was away from them. He needed to find a place to hide, as he doubted he could outrun the hunters.

More voices joined the shouts of the villager that had seen him. Yugi kept running without looking back. His legs were starting to ache and he was short of breath. If he could just find a thicket to hide in…

Suddenly, his foot caught a thick tree root and he fell forward on his face. He tried to scramble back up, but a hand grabbed his arm and he was pulled backwards.

"We got her!" a voice shouted. Yugi felt panic surge in his chest and he retaliated by turning and slamming his fist into the man's face. The villager let go of his arm as he stumbled backwards from the blow, but suddenly two more villagers grabbed him from behind. Yugi saw out of the corner of his eye that one of them was holding shackles. Yugi managed to ram his foot into one man's shin, but the other forced his arms behind his back. He heard the clank of iron as the shackles closed on his wrists.

The man that Yugi had punched stood up and was walking towards Yugi and his captor, but rather suddenly doubled over as Yugi brought his knee up into the man's stomach. If Yugi was going to be dragged off to certain death, he sure wasn't going to go quietly.

More villagers emerged from the trees. Yet another unfortunate man got a knee in the stomach, and one of them eventually decided that it would be less trouble for them if they bound Yugi's ankles. Another stuffed a gag in Yugi's mouth, telling the others that the witch could cast spells on a man if she were allowed to speak. Yugi had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

One of the men, which Yugi recognized as one of the jailers that had tied him to the stake, grabbed him by the hair and forced him to look into his hardened face.

"You got away before, you little witch," he said contemptuously. "But you won't have the same luck this time!"

Suddenly, there was a dull thump. The man's eyes widened and his jaw went slack. His grip on Yugi's hair slowly weakened and he fell to the ground with a knife in his back.

There was uproar amongst the villagers as they tried to figure out where the knife had come from, but Yugi didn't listen. He was staring at the blade's black handle. He had seen the knife before; he knew who it belonged to, but… it was impossible…

A roar suddenly echoed through the trees, shaking Yugi back into the present. With wide eyes Yugi watched as a torrent of dark shadows with gargoyle faces descended upon the hunters. Yugi fell to the ground as the man holding him screamed and turned to run. The shadow engulfed him and the scream cut off abruptly.

Yugi struggled against his bonds as one of the shadows came towards him, but suddenly it stopped. It seemed to study him for a moment, then it turned and drifted away into the trees. The rest of the shadows followed, leaving the lifeless yet unscathed bodies of the villagers behind.

Yugi sat where he had fallen in shock. What was going on? What had just happened? He jumped as he heard footsteps, and froze as a human form entered the shadowed area. Yugi's eyes went wide and he fell back against a tree trunk, suddenly not able to support himself.

Atemu had to lean against a tree to stay standing and was out of breath. Sweat trailed down his face, and somewhere in his shock-ridden mind Yugi noted that this was odd.

Atemu stumbled forward, falling to his knees beside Yugi. He gently removed the gag, but Yugi could only stare at him dumbly. Atemu smiled wearily.

"What? Is this the only welcome I get?"

Yugi tried to speak, but instead a small sob forced itself out of his throat and he threw himself into Atemu's embrace with tears running down his face. He felt the shackles being removed and as soon as his arms were free he hugged Atemu tightly.

They stayed that way for several minutes. Yugi eventually calmed down and the sobs quieted. He raised his head and looked up into Atemu's face; the sight nearly made him break down again. Glancing around, Yugi saw the lifeless bodies of the villagers lying amongst the trees. His eyes fell on the man with the knife in his back.

"Nice shot," he managed to say. Atemu chuckled. Yugi raised his hands and traced the lines of Atemu's face slowly, then took Atemu's hands and began to rub them. Atemu smiled at the familiar action. Yugi smiled back. There were so many things that he wanted to ask Atemu, about how he was alive and what the phantom shadows were, but right now all he wanted to do was enjoy Atemu's presence.

Then, Yugi frowned. Something wasn't quite right. The skin under his hands felt… warm. Yugi looked up at Atemu and gently wiped some of the sweat away from his forehead. Nightwalkers don't sweat… they don't have any body heat…

"You're…!" Yugi exclaimed, but he didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as a moan reached his ears. Their heads whipped around simultaneously to stare at one of the villagers as he moaned again and began to pick himself up off the ground. Others also began to move about as they woke up, excluding the man with the knife in his back.

Atemu reacted quickly. He reached out and jerked his knife out of the villager's back, then grabbed Yugi and darted behind a tangle of shrubs. They watched in hiding as the villagers stood up and asked each other what had happened.

"I thought they were dead," Yugi whispered fearfully as he clung to Atemu.

"No," Atemu said. "The shadows I sent just changed their memories. The only one that died is the one that got stabbed."

"Changed their memories?"

"Yes. They won't remember catching you; what they'll remember is that a torch was accidentally dropped, caught your clothes on fire and burned you to death. They'll go back to the village and tell everyone that you're dead."

"So they won't chase us anymore…" Yugi murmured.

Atemu nodded. "Exactly."

They watched as the men "remembered" what had happened and congratulated each other on their fine efforts. They momentarily mourned the loss of their one casualty, proclaiming him a fine man that had sacrificed himself for the good of the village, then they hauled his body off the ground and headed for the town.

As soon as they were out of sight Yugi relaxed against Atemu. He was surprised when he felt warmth in Atemu's skin, then he remembered.

"How…" he said, and Atemu frowned at him.

"How do you have body heat? I thought it was impossible…"

"Impossible for nightwalkers," Atemu said. Yugi stared at Atemu in confusion. "I, Yugi, am no longer a nightwalker. The curse was destroyed, remember?"

Yugi smiled as comprehension dawned on him, but then he frowned again. "But what about the shadow monsters? You conjured them, right?"

"Yes… sort of. They were merely a release of magic that had built up in my body over the centuries."

Yugi nodded. "So… you're a human now…"

Atemu smiled. "I suppose I am."

Yugi threw his arms around Atemu and they sat there in each other's arms for a long time, not wanting to move. Eventually, though, Yugi asked, "Where do we go now?"

Atemu shrugged. "Back to the house, I suppose. Or what's left of it."

"Is it not there anymore?"

Atemu bit his lip. "Well, the house was very old and very ill-kempt; I think my magic might have been the only thing supporting it. The house probably collapsed when the curse was broken."

Yugi's brow creased in a frown, but then he smiled. "Well, then that means there's materials to build a new house, right?"

Atemu smiled, then swept Yugi up in his arms and headed for the house. They walked hand in hand through the forest as the sun began to peek over the horizon and eventually entered the clearing where the house was. They expected to see the house in ruins. Instead, Yugi laughed aloud at what he saw and Atemu slumped down onto a fallen log as his legs suddenly weakened under him. He suddenly knew what his mother's last comment had meant.

Behind the iron fence was the house, but it was not the same house. It looked as though it had just been built rather than being centuries old. The garden around it was full of flowers and the trees were filled with new leaves. And, Yugi noticed happily, there were no longer boards on the windows and all the shutters were flung open.

Yugi sat down beside Atemu and put his arms around him.

"How is this possible?" he asked softly.

Atemu smiled. "Someone up there is looking out for us, I guess."

A/N: And so the story ends. I'm thinking of doing an epilogue; it shouldn't take me too long. Now maybe I'll focus on Beneath the Surface. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, all the way back to the beginning (which was a year and a half ago). Please review, you will make me very happy!


	16. Epilogue

A/N: Well, here it is, the epilogue to In Memories Forgotten. I've had a great time writing this story and I hope all the readers have enjoyed it just as much. Thank you once again to all the reviewers (Yay! 100 reviews!) I send virtual hugs to all of you.

In Memories Forgotten

Epilogue

It was the perfect day to savor a good mood. The summer sun shone down happily on the forest, which was green and vibrant and full of songbirds. A warm breeze made the leaves dance on their branches and the flowers eagerly raised their heads to meet the warm rays of the sun. Yes, it was an absolutely, positively perfect day to be outside, and Yugi was not going to waste it.

He surveyed his new vegetable garden critically, searching for any weeds or signs of unwanted insects. He knelt down to pull up a few intruding plants, happily noting that the carrots were doing quite well, then frowned as he heard a small scuffling sound. Yugi looked up, but saw nothing and no one and continued inspecting the neatly planted rows.

Then the sound reached his ears again. Yugi turned around and stared for a while at the surrounding gardens, but still saw nothing. Beginning to feel suspicious, Yugi cautiously turned back to the tomato plants he was tending to.

Suddenly the sound came again, but much closer than it had been before, and Yugi had no time to react as he was grabbed from behind. Yugi shrieked and struggled as he was dragged away from the garden, but was unable to escape the grasp of his captor.

"Atemu, let go of me!"

Atemu just laughed and, holding Yugi tightly against him, softly nuzzled his neck.

"Now give me one good reason why I should," Atemu said.

Instead of answering, Yugi said, "You know, you're not as stealthy as you used to be."

Atemu pouted, eliciting a giggle from Yugi.

It had been several months since they had come back to the house, though Yugi wasn't sure exactly how long it had been. Neither of them kept very good track of the days. Thus far, no one from the village had bothered them. Doubtless the villagers thought that the "witch" and the "monster" were dead and gone, which suited Yugi and Atemu just fine.

The adjustments that Atemu had had to make from being a nightwalker to being human had been interesting, to say the least. He had to learn to eat regularly again, for one thing, and Yugi had discovered that Atemu had a ravenous appetite. Thankfully, when Hikaru had resurrected the house for them, so to speak, she had equipped it with a fully-stocked kitchen. And, although Atemu was no longer a nightwalker, he had retained his excellent hearing and adeptness at stealth, which made him an excellent hunter. Yugi had also begun his little vegetable garden, which he hoped would serve them well when winter came.

Atemu also had to adjust to being able to walk in the sun. Although he enjoyed the feeling, he often kept to the shadows, a habit that had been ingrained into him over the centuries. Yugi doubted if it was a habit that Atemu would ever break.

Although it was a bit dangerous, Atemu had on a few occasions journeyed to the cemetery to visit his mother's grave. Atemu had told Yugi what had happened when he had momentarily passed on into the next life, and it made Yugi glad that Atemu had gotten to see his mother again, even if only for a little while. Yugi could tell when Atemu was thinking about her. He would stare off into the distance with a wistful look on his face, smiling to himself as he remembered her.

Yugi did not think about his father often. For a while it had bothered him that his father thought that his mother's death was Yugi's fault, but a couple days after Atemu and Yugi had escaped the hunters someone had appeared at their gate. It was Mai, and she came up to the gate, pounded on it and demanded to see Yugi. Mai had been wary of Atemu at first, but Yugi had reassured her that everything was fine.

Mai hadn't heard that the "witch" had been killed as she hadn't been back to the village since the night of Yugi's almost-execution. She had been searching the forest for him, hoping that she would find him before the hunters did. Mai had been afraid that Yugi was being kept as a prisoner by the "monster", but Yugi explained everything that had happened and how Atemu had given his own life to save Yugi's. In return, Mai refuted everything that Yugi's father had said at the witch trial. His mother's death was not his fault, she said, any more than it was her fault.

Now that her vow to Yugi's mother was fulfilled, Mai wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. She said that she wanted to return to the city where she had grown up but didn't have the money. Thus, Atemu gave her several pieces of jewelry that had belonged to the original owner of the house. Selling them would give her all the money she would ever need. Mai bade them farewell and promised to visit sometime in the future, then left to pursue her own future, leaving Yugi to finally make peace with his past.

"Yugi? Is something wrong?" Atemu asked.

Yugi snapped out of his thoughts. "No," he said. "Nothing's wrong."

Yugi grinned suddenly and splashed Atemu with the water can and, as Atemu spluttered in surprise, squirmed out of his grasp and dashed through the garden. Atemu chased Yugi around the house several times until he finally managed to catch him. The two tumbled onto the grass, laughing and panting.

Yugi looked up at Atemu, their eyes locking. Atemu grinned.

"I love you, Yugi," he said softly.

Yugi smiled back at him. "I love you, too."

And Atemu leaned down for a kiss while the sun blissfully shone on the forest.

A/N: Thanks again, readers.


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